SSI HISTOUY OF 



when living aiiiniul food does not offer, it has even been known 

 to eat carrion, and whatever else of the kind that offers. Gulls 

 are found in great plenty iji every place ; but it is chiefly round 

 our boldest rockiest shores that they are seen in the greatest 



porhaps, arose the association of the bird with the tempest. Though the 

 petrels venture to wing- their way over the wide; ocean, as fearlessly ;is our 

 Bwullows do over a mill-pond, they are not, therefore, the less sensible to 

 danger ; and, as if feelingly aware of their own weakness, they make all 

 lijiste to the nearest shelter. When they cannot then find an island or a 

 rock to shield them from the blast, they fly towards the first ship they can' 

 descry, crowd into her wake, and even close under the stern, heedless, it 

 would appear, of the rushing surge, so that they can keep the vessel be- 

 tween them and the unbroken sweep of the wind. It is not to be wondered 

 at, in such cases, that their low wailing note of weet, weet, should add some, 

 thing supernatural to the roar of waves and whistling of the wind, and in. 

 fuse an ominous dread into minds prone to superstition. 



The popular opinion among saUors, that the petrels carry their eggs under 

 their wings iu order to hatch them, is no less unfounded than the fancy of 

 their causing storms : it is, indeed, physically impossible. On the contrary, 

 the petrels have been ascertained to breed on rocky shores, in numerous 

 communities, like the bank-swallow, making their nests in the holes and 

 cavities of the rocks above the sea, returning to feed their young only dur- 

 ing the night, with the superabundant oily food from tlieir stomachs. The 

 quantity of this oily matter is so (Considerable, that, in tlie Faro Isles, they 

 use petrels for candles, with no other preparation than drawing a wick 

 tlirougli the body of the birds from the mouth to the rump. Wliile nest- 

 ling, they make a cluttering or croaking noise, simihir to frogs,«wliich may 

 be heard during the whole night on the shores of the Bahama and Bermuda 

 Islands, and the coasts of Cuba and Florida, where they abound. Forster 

 says they bury themselves by thousands in holes under ground, where they 

 roar tlieir young and lodge at night ; and at New Zealand, the shores re- 

 sound with the noise, similar to the clucking of hens, or the croaking of 

 frogs (Poutoppidan, speaking of those of Norway, says like the neigliing of 

 a horse), which they send forth from their concealment. 



The Gulls, Buffon terms the vultures of the sea, for they feed upon car- 

 casses of every description, which are either floatiug ou its surface, or 

 cast upon its shores. They swarm upon the borders of the sea, where they 

 seek fish, either fresh or corrupted, flesh in tlie same states, worms, or mol. 

 lusca, all of whic^h their stomach is capable of digesting. Spread through. 

 out the entire globe, they cover ^vith their multitudes the shores, rocks, 

 and cliffs, causing thera to re-echo with their clamours. There are even 

 some species which frequent the fresh waters, and some are to be met with 

 at sea, at more than a hundred leiigues distant from land. D'Azara, who 

 has seen them, in innumerable quantities, near the slaughter houses of Monte 

 Video, Buenos Aj-res, and even in the squares, where tliey pick up the offal 

 of the shambles, &c., and sometimes perch on the roofs, tells us that they 

 proc(>ed considerably to inland, whither they are attracted by dead animals. 



They dart with such violence on their prey, that they will swallow both 

 bait and hook, and st>it themselves on the point placed by the fisher under 



