BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 383 



which it pursues. After it grows dark it rests on the water for 

 the night; but on the following morning, easily overtakes the 

 vessel that has left it behind. In general it is rather silent, 

 but at times it makes a low sound, as if asking the seaman to 

 throw it out some food. It usually subsists on resources sup- 

 plied by its favorite element, the sea. 



The FORK TAILED PETREL, Thalassidroma Leachii, was 

 said by Bonaparte, to be uncommon on the American shores ; 

 but Audubon declares that on the coast of Massachusetts, this 

 is much more abundant than the other species. On approach- 

 ing land, when returning from Europe, he shot a number of 

 those that surrounded the vessel, and found among them speci- 

 mens of all the three. This is the most suspicious, never fly- 

 ing close to the vessel like the others ; it is not known to 

 alight on the rigging, and rests less frequently upon the water. 

 But its food is the same, consisting of such small fish and crus- 

 tacea as it can pick up from floating seaweed on the water, or 

 oily substances thrown from vessels into the sea. These birds 

 are able to bear considerable abstinence, but everything which 

 they swallow, seems to be turned to oil, and their flesh is rank 

 and unpleasant to the taste. They are found breeding in the 

 fissures of rocks, above the reach of the spray, while the pre- 

 ceding burrows in the sand on low islands. Though this bird 

 seems so bound to the ocean, by all its habits and wants, I 

 have had one brought to me which was taken near Chicopee 

 river in Springfield, seventy miles from the shore. 



The FULMAR PETREL, Procellaria glacialis, has been found 

 by Andubon from Long Island to Newfoundland, but I do not 

 know that any one has, as yet, been taken within the State. 

 This is the bird so well known as the main dependence of the 

 singular inhabitants of St. Kilda, one of the western isles of 

 Scotland. 



The SNOW GOOSE, Anser hyperboreus, breeds in Arctic Amer- 

 ica, resorting to the sandy shores of lakes and rivers. They 





