Bird Characteristics Architecturally 



THE Stormy Petrel, also called the Storm-swallow by 

 the Dutch, whose great power of wing enables it 

 to sweep over the ocean at every distance from land, 

 and even to weather the most tempestuous winds, has a 

 great peculiarity. With its webbed feet and light form it 

 can actually walk upon the billows with as much ease as a 

 sprarrow can hop along a garden wall. 



"It is indeed an interesting sight," says Wilson, "to 

 observe these little birds, in a gale, coursing over the 

 waves, down the declivities, and up the ascents of the 

 foaming surf that threatens to burst over their heads, 

 sweeping along the hollow troughs of the sea, as in a 

 sheltered valley, and again mounting with the rising 

 billow, and just above its surface, occasionally dropping 

 their feet, which, striking the water, throw them up again 

 with additional force, sometimes leaping, with both legs 

 parallel, on the surface of the roughest waves for several 

 yards at a time. Meanwhile they continue coursing from 

 side to side of the ship's wake, making excursions far and 

 wide to the right and to the left, now a great way ahead and 

 now shooting astern for several hundred yards, returning 

 again to the ship as if she were all the while stationary, 

 though perhaps running at least ten knots an hour. But 

 the most singular peculiarity of this bird is its faculty of 

 standing, and even running, on the surface of the water, 

 which it performs with apparent facility. When any 

 greasy matter is thrown overboard these birds instantly 

 collect around it, facing to windward, with their long wings 

 expanded and their webbed feet patting the water. The 

 lightness of their bodies and the action of the wind on 



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