STORM PETREL. 507 



THE STORM PETREL. 



THA LA SSI D ROM A PEL A QIC A . 

 Asilag. Lucha fairge. 



THIS very interesting little bird is a common species in the Heb- 

 rides, and its breeding places may be said to be numerous around 

 most of the larger islands, such as Skye, Mull, and Islay. Colonies 

 have long existed near Dunvegan, on the Ascrib islands, Canna, 

 Ruin, and Eigg, besides numerous other rocks and islands off the 

 mainland from Cape Wrath to Ardnamurchan, and from that to 

 the Mull of Cantyre. The most southernly breeding station in the 

 West of Scotland is perhaps Ailsa Craig, where an old bird was 

 caught, and a single egg obtained, by the tacksman in the breeding 

 season of 1 842 ; but though I have repeatedly visited the rock 

 within the last twenty years, and seen the birds on several occa- 

 sions, I found it impossible to procure the eggs on account of the 

 size of the basaltic blocks under which the birds were sitting. In 

 some other places, such as the island of Soay, near lona, the petrels 

 have their holes in soft mud, the entrance halls of which are about 

 as large as rabbit burrows. From these other smaller galleries 

 branch off, so that one external aperture serves as a kind of lobby 

 for a number of pairs. 



Although to a great extent nocturnal in its habits, the Storm 

 Petrel is not unfrequently met with throughout the summer and 

 autumn in dull and uncertain weather within a few miles of the shore. 

 Should a gale spring up, they may be seen flitting restlessly above 

 the broken water until they make out some belaboured boat or 

 larger vessel, which they at once fly to and follow, apparently in 

 expectation of finding morsels of food, just as many larger birds 

 sea-gulls, for example pertinaciously flap in the wake of steam 

 vessels for even twenty and thirty miles. I well recollect my first 

 introduction to the Storm Petrel. I had set sail early one morning 

 towards the end of May from one of the Clyde ports for Ailsa 

 Craig, in company with one or two friends and three experienced 

 fishermen. The weather, as it turned out, was too fine, and before 

 we reached our destination at mid-day the sky betokened a change. 

 About half a mile from the rock I observed a petrel; but knowing 

 the superstitious fear with which the bird is regarded, it did not 



