STOBM-PETREL 535 



twilight its dusky form may be seen flitting rapidly to and 

 fro and reminding one not a little of a bat on the wing. 

 But out on the ocean its characteristic little figure may be 

 observed by daylight coursing over the crests of the waves 

 and at times lightly tipping the water with its long slender 

 feet dangling at full length. Such a movement gives one 

 the impression that the bird is walking on the waves with 

 raised and fluttering wings. 



FIG. 65.- STORM-PETREL. 



It seldom rises any height in the air and in boisterous 

 weather will seek shelter in the trough of the mighty, 

 rolling billow. Its flight is swift, graceful, and remarkably 

 buoyant, full of twists and sudden swerves, and at a little 

 distance the bird resembles a swallow ' hawking ' for gnats, 

 &c., low over the surface of the water. But if a Storan- 

 Petrel, as it flits over the deep, be kept in view and brought 

 up close with a powerful prism-binocular, it will be seen to 

 move for the most part with a strong, steady and regular up 

 and down beat of the wings, resembling a Tern in hurried 

 flight. 



Far out, perhaps a thousand miles from land, when no 

 other bird-life is visible, the little Petrel, clad in its ominous 

 browny-black plumage, may be seen following in the wake 

 of a great vessel. It may continue in its course for weeks, 

 apparently not staying its flight from darkness to dawn. To 

 the superstitious it is a bird of ill-omen, its presence o'er 



