CHAPTER VI. 

 PETRELS. 



Petrels Characteristics Stormy Petrel Manx Shear- 

 Changes of Plumage Fulmar water. 

 Petrel Fork - tailed Petrel 



OF all seabirds, the Petrels are the most pelagic. 

 They are the birds of the wide ocean, even 

 showing small partiality for narrow seas, and chiefly 

 frequenting for breeding purposes only such spots 

 as face the widest expanses of water. They are 

 the most marine of birds, yet they form one of the 

 least apparent features in the bird-life of the sea, 

 and more especially when that bird-life is studied 

 from the coast. Their crepuscular, or nocturnal, 

 habits during their short visits to the land to breed, 

 their sombre hues, their low flight, just above the 

 waves, all combine in rendering these birds excep- 

 tionally difficult of observation. The Petrels 

 present such exclusively distinctive characters that 

 many systematists relegate them to an order by 

 themselves. This order is termed TUBINARES, 

 because the birds contained in it have the nostrils 

 tubular a character which serves, at a glance, to 



