STOEMT PETREL. 145 



of Coventry, and three near Birmingham. In Berkshire one 

 was taken near Newbury. 



In Ireland, as already mentioned, it is indigenous, but is 

 usually found, when found, dead inland. 



These birds are made use of by the inhabitants of the 

 Ferroe and other islands, to serve for lamps, a wick of cotton 

 or other material being drawn through the body, and when 

 lighted it continues to burn till the oil in the bird is con- 

 sumed. The quantity of oil yielded decreases as the summer 

 advances, and at last it fails altogether, probably from their 

 falling off in condition, and the supply given to their young, 

 they being fed with the same. 



The Stormy Petrel has been kept alive in confinement for 

 several months, feeding itself with oil spread for the purpose 

 on its feathers. The young have been brought up in con- 

 finement. 



They are crepuscular and nocturnal in their habits, and 

 towards night wander forth accordingly over the ocean. 



This tiny sea-bird, ever on the wing, as well in the serenest 

 as in the most tempestuous weather, finds equally its home 

 in each and every quarter of the globe. Many are the sad 

 tales it could tell of what it has heard and seen, by day and 

 by night, in the north, the south, the east, and west. Let 

 the imagination, aided by what others have seen and said, set 

 the picture faintly before us in its different points of view. 



Now in the north, a thousand miles from land, alone in 

 its wanderings over the vast abyss of the unfathomable ocean, 

 the depth below as pitchy black as the murky night-cloud 

 overhead that will soon enshroud the face of the deep with 

 its darksome mantle till the two elements shall be, as it were, 

 mingled together in one common gloom, the Petrel careers 

 along the driving waves, and revels in the advance of the 

 coming storm. Could we be there while not there for the 

 very presence of man must take off from the dread solemnity 

 which can only in- its fullness belong to perfect solitude how 

 utterly lonely the scene, even in the height of a summer's day! 

 and what must it be in the 'wild midnight' of the end of the 

 year, when the short-lived glories of the arctic solstice, that 

 have only gleamed 'too soon to fleet,' have withered and waned 

 into the long and dreary night of the winter of winters? It 

 is indeed in itself the same by day and by night, and yet how 

 great the difference. The 'Northern Lights' themselves are 

 hidden behind a black starless sky, and cutting winds that freeze 

 TOL. TIII. L 



