4d STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



makes its nest? Such, however, is the case, and the prett}' 

 little traverser of the ocean shows itself to be as accomplished 

 in excavating the ground as 't is in flitting over the waves with 

 its curious mixture of flight and running. If the Stormy Petrel 

 can find a burrow already dug, it will make use of it, and 

 accordingly is fond of haunting rocky coasts, and of depositing 

 its eggs in some suitable cleft. It also will settle in a deserted 

 rabbit-burrow, if it can find one sufficiently near the sea, and is 

 found breeding in many places which would equally suit the 

 pufiin. 



Failing, however, all natural or ready-made cavities, the 

 Stormy Petrel is obliged to excavate a tunnel for itself, and 

 even on sandy ground is able to make its own domicile. Off 

 Cape Sable, in Nova Scotia, there are many low-lying islands, 

 the upper parts of which are of a sandy nature, and the lower 

 composed chiefly of mud. Not a hope is there in such locali- 

 ties of already existing cavities, and yet to those islands the 

 Petrels resort by thousands, for the purpose of breeding. The 

 birds set resolutely to work, and delve little burrows into the 

 sandy soil, seldom digging deeper than a foot, and, in fact, only 

 making the cavity sufficiently large to conceal themselves and 

 their treasure. 



Each bird lays a single egg, which is white, and of small 

 dimensions. The young are funny-looking objects, and re- 

 semble puff's of white down rather than nestlings. The parent 

 attends to its young with great assiduity, feeding it with the 

 oleaginous fluid which is secreted in such quantities by the 

 digestive organs of this bird. So large indeed is the amount of 

 oil, that in some parts of the world the natives make the Stormy 

 Petrel into a lamp, by the simple process of drawing a wick 

 through its body. The oil soon rises into the wick, and burns 

 as freely as in any of the really rude and primitive, though 

 ornamental lamps of the ancients. 



The Petrel only feeds its young by night, remaining on the 

 wing during the day, and flying to vast distances from the land. 

 Owing to this habit, and its custom of taking to the sea during 

 the fiercest storms, it has long been an object of dread to 



