The Nesting of the Storm Petrel 



nestling, as we subsequently found to be the case with every 

 chick we examined, had a curious circulaT* bald patch on the 

 top of the head. Its feet and bill were of a pale grey. Its 

 shrill pipe closely resembled the whistle of a young oyster- 

 catcher. Having obtained some photographs of this 

 chick we went on to the wall where, as mentioned earlier, 

 we had on July 3 heard and found a storm petrel which had 

 not then laid. This day in the same cranny we found a 

 petrel presumably the identical bird brooding a tiny chick, 

 which at the outside could not have been more than three 

 days old. Mr. Eagle Clarke, one of our foremost naturalists, 

 has informed me that, in his experience, it has been rare to 

 find the adult bird with its young during the hours of day- 

 light, so the accompanying illustration, showing young and 

 old together, is the more interesting on that account. The 

 parent bird on being disturbed ejected a quantity of brown 

 oily substance, but beyond calling twice sharply, "Ka, ka," 

 was silent. The newly-hatched chick, unlike the individual 

 of a fortnight old previously mentioned, had its legs and feet 

 almost pure white. 



Later in the day we visited a stone wall where, on July 13, 

 a storm petrel was purring repeatedly, and where on the 

 stones being disturbed the bird walked out to the light, but, 

 thinking better of it, returned to the darkness of the interior 

 of the wall. I had on this occasion an excellent view of the 

 small and fragile petrel as she walked out from the darkness 

 of her nesting site, and her walk was certainly graceful and 

 easy. I was therefore surprised to read in the "British 

 Bird Book " (Kirkman) that, according to all observers, the 

 storm petrel never walks. This bird was still engaged in 

 brooding an egg which, from its appearance, was on the point 

 of hatching. It is said that a storm petrel's egg hatched out 

 in an incubator on the thirty-sixth day, so it would seem that 

 even this prolonged period of artificial incubation errs, if 

 anything, on the short side. 



On a small adjoining island we found another storm 



73 



