PETRELS. 251 



yards. This Petrel is not seen abroad much at its 

 breeding places during daylight ; all day long the 

 little birds skulk in their burrows, but with the 

 approach of night, they begin to sally forth from 

 their retreats and nests, and their fluttering forms 

 may be seen flitting to and fro in the deepening 

 gloom, backwards and forwards, to and from the 

 sea. The Fork-tailed Petrel is not a very noisy 

 bird. Those that I dragged from their nests 

 uttered a few squeaking notes ; but at night the 

 species becomes more garrulous. But three breed- 

 ing stations of this Petrel are known one in the 

 North Pacific, another in the Bay of Fundy, and 

 the third within the British area. Its migrations 

 are limited. 



STORMY PETREL. 



This diminutive species, the Procellaria pelagica 

 of Linnaeus and most modern writers, and the 

 " Mother Carey's Chicken" of mariners, is, perhaps, 

 the best known of the Petrels that frequent the 

 British seas. It is remarkable for being the 

 smallest web -footed bird a nearly black little 

 creature, with a white patch on the upper tail 

 coverts. Small as this Petrel is, it is just as 

 oceanic in its haunts as its larger and more robust 

 congeners. During boisterous weather, especially 

 about the period of the equinoctial gales in autumn, 

 Stormy Petrels are not unfrequently driven some 

 distance inland ; and examples of this species have 

 been picked up more or less exhausted, even in the 



