266 PROCELLARIN^. THALASSIDROMA. 





322. THALASSIDROMA PELAGICA. STORM PETREL. 



Tail slightly rounded ; bill and feet black ; plumage greyish- 

 black above, sooty-brown beneath ; secondary coverts mar- 

 gined externally with dull greyish-white; feathers of the 

 rump, and sides of abdomen, white ; upper tail-coverts white, 

 broadly tipped with black ; length nearly six inches. Young 

 of lighter tints, with the feathers edged with reddish-brown. 



Male, 5jf, 13*, 4|, T <L, if, T \, A. Female, 5&, 13J. 



This species, the smallest of the European web-footed birds, 

 is indigenous with us, breeding in Cornwall, Shetland, Orkney, 

 and the Hebrides, in holes in the rocks, or under stones on the 

 sea-beach. The egg is single, nearly elliptical, an inch and a 

 twelfth long, ten-twelfths broad, pure white, without gloss, 

 generally with a belt of minute dark-red dots at the large 

 end. It disappears from all its breeding-places after the 

 young are reared, and seems to reside on the open sea during 

 winter. It has a buoyant and gliding flight, floats lightly on 

 the water, swims with ease, lets down its feet occasionally 

 when skimming over the waves, and has thus been imagined 

 to walk on the sea ; whence the name Petrel or little Peter, 

 given to this and other species. It frequently appears in the 

 wake of vessels, and picks up portions of animal and vege- 

 table substances ; but generally its gullet and stomach are 

 found to contain oily matter, which, on being seized, it vo- 

 mits, like the other species of this family. I have seen the 

 delicate- looking little creatures, in rough weather, gliding 

 over the waves, at the height of scarcely a foot above the 

 surface, which they followed in all its undulations, mounting 

 to the top of the wave, there quivering in the blast, then 

 shooting down the slope, resting a moment in the sheltered 

 hollow, and again ascending. 



Mother Carey's Chicken. Storm-finch. Little Petrel. 

 Water-witch. Alamouti. Asilag. Spency. Sea-Swallow. 



Procellaria pelagica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 212.^ Procella- 

 ria pelagica, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 826. Procellaria pelagica, 

 Temm. Man. d'Ornith. ii. 810. Thalassidroma pelagica, 

 Storm Petrel, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds. 



