STORMY PETREL. 167 



numbers, and in all weathers, contributing much, by 

 their sprightly evolutions of wing-, to enliven the scene, 

 and affording me every day several hours of amuse- 

 ment. It is indeed an interesting sight to observe 

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

 down the declivities, 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 its feet, 

 which, striking the water, throws it 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 it continues 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 the rate of ten knots an hour. But the most sin- 

 gular 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, and, 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 their wings, enable them to do this 

 with ease. In calm weather they perform the same 

 manoeuvre, by keeping their wings just so much in 

 action as to prevent their feet from sinking below the 

 surface. According to Buffon,* it is from this singular 

 habit that the whole genus have obtained the name 

 Petrel, from the apostle Peter, who, as Scripture informs 

 us, also walked on the water. 



As these birds often come up immediately under the 

 stern, one can examine their form and plumage with 

 nearly as much accuracy as if they were in the hand. 



* BUFFOBT, tome xxiii, p. 299. 



