BIRDS. 383 



The giiil, and all its varieties, is very well known in every part 

 of the kingdom. It is seen with a slow-sailing flight, hover- 

 ing over rivers to prey upon the smaller kinds of fish ; it is seen 

 following the ploughman in fallow fields to pick up insects ; and 



with ease to assume this position. In calm weather thoy perform the same 

 manoeuvre by keeping- their wings just so mucli in action as to prevent theii 

 feet from sinkin;^ below the surface." 



" There are," says the same writer la anotlier place, " few persons who 

 have crossed the Atlantic that have not observed these solitary wanderers 

 of the deep, skimming- along the surface of the wild and wasteful ocean; 

 flitting past the vessel like swallows, or following in her wake, gleaning 

 their scanty pittance of food from the rough and whirling surges. Habited 

 in mourning, and making their appearance generally in greater numbers 

 previous to or during a storm, they have long been fearfully regarded by the 

 ignorant and super.stitious, not only as the foreboding messengers of tem- 

 pests and dangers to the hapless mariner, but as wicked agents, connected 

 some how or other in creating them. ' Nobody,' say they, ' can tell any thing 

 of where they come from, or how they breed, though (as sailors sometimes 

 say) it is supposed that they hatch their eggs under their wings as they sit 

 on the water.' This mysterious uncertainty of their origin, and the circum- 

 stances above recited, have doubtless given rise to the opinion, .so prevalent 

 araun;; this class of men, that they are in some way or other connected with 

 the prince of the power of the air. In every country where they are known, 

 their names have borne some affinity to this belief. They have been called 

 witches, stormy petrels, tlie Devil's birds, and Mother Gary's chickens, pro- 

 bably from some celebrated ideal hag of that name ; and their unexpected 

 and numerous appearance has frequently thrown a momentary damp over 

 the mind of the hardiest seaman. It is the business of tlie naturalist, and the 

 glory of philosophy, to examine into the reality of these things ; to dissipate 

 the clouds of error and superstition wherever they darken and bewilder the 

 human understanding, and to illustrate nature with the radiance of truth." 



When we inquire, accordingly, into the unvarnished history of this omi- 

 nous bird, we find that it is by no means peculiar in pre.«aging storms, for 

 many others of very diftercnt famili<is are evidently endowed with an equally 

 nice perception of a change in the atmosphere. Hence it is that, befon; 

 rain, swallows are seen more eaf,'erly hawking for flies, and ducks carefully 

 trimming their feathers, and tossiuff up water over their backs, to try 

 whether it will run off again without wetting them. But it would be as 

 absurd to accuse the swallows and ducks on that account of being the cause 

 of rain, as to impute a tempest to the spiteful malice of the poor petrels. 

 Seamen ought rather to be thankful to them for the warning which their 

 delicate feelings of aerial change enable them to give of an approaching hur. 

 ricanc. " As well," says Wilson, " might they curse the midnight light. 

 house that, star-like, guides them on their watery way ; or the buoy that 

 warns them of the sunken rocks below, as this harmless wanderer, uliose 

 manner informs them of the approach of the storm, and thereby enables 

 them to prepare for it." The petrels are nocturnal birds. When, therefore, 

 they are seen Hying about and feeding by day, the fact appears to indicate 

 that they have been drivou from their ^suol qu;irters by a stovm j and henctj 



