272 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



pieces of seaweed, and contained one small white egg, very 

 minutely spotted at the broader end with brown. It did 

 not make the least effort to escape. I took it in my hand, 

 and when there, it squirted an oily matter from its nostrils 

 at me two or three times in quick succession. ... 1 was for- 

 tunate enough to find another of the breeding-places of the 

 Stormy Petrel, and procured several of the birds and their 

 eggs from among the remains of an old Pictish building 

 situate close to the shore, and a part of which we were 

 obliged to remove before we could get to the nests." The 

 Stormy Petrels are the smallest of the web-footed birds ; 

 and those of the present secies are known among the 

 Shetland fishermen by the name of Swallows, to which 

 name their notes and appearance, together with the swift- 

 ness of their flight, may have given rise. To a great degree 

 they are nocturnal in their habits, flying little in the day- 

 time in fine weather, but coming forth from their retreats 

 in the evening, and spreading themselves over the waters. 

 The egg is sometimes white without markings, and in size 

 rather less than a Turtle Dove's. 



WILSON'S STORM PETREL. Thalassidroma Wilsonii. 

 We are not aware that many specimens of this bird have 

 been captured on our shores, although we have seen it stated 



