THE STORMY PETREL. 



sailors, whose illogical minds are unable to discriminate between 

 cause and effect, and fancy that the Petrel, or Mother Carey's 

 Chicken, as they call the bird, is the being which, by the exer- 

 cise of some magic art, calls the storm into existence. They 

 even fancy that the Petrel never goes ashore nor rests ; and will 

 tell you that it does not lay its egg in the ground, but holds it 

 under one wing, and hatches it while engaged in flight. To 

 the vulgar mind, everything incomprehensible is fraught with 

 terrors, and so the harmless, and even useful Petrel, is hated 

 with strange virulence. 



Throughout the breeding season, the Petrel is indefatigable 

 in search of food, and will follow ships for considerable dis- 

 tances, in hopes of obtaining some of the offal that is thrown 

 overboard by the cook. Even if a cupful of oil be emptied 

 into the water, the Petrel will scoop it up in its bill, and take 

 it home to its young. During the night it mostly remains with 

 its offspring, feeding it, and making a curious grunting noise, 

 something like the croaking of frogs. This noise is continued 

 throughout the night, and those who have visited the great 

 nesting places of the Petrel, unite in mentioning it as a loud 

 and peculiar sound. The ordinary cry is low and short, some- 

 thing like the quacking of a young duck. By day, however, 

 the birds are silent, and only those who keep nightly watch 

 on the ship's deck, can have an opportunity of hearing their 

 chattering cry. 



The burrow in which the young Petrel is hatched is extremely 

 odoriferous, the oily food on which the bird lives having itself 

 a very rancid and unsavoury scent; and in consequence of 

 feeding upon this substance, both the habitation and the in- 

 mates are extremely offensive to the nostrils. The young bird 

 is at first very helpless, and remains in its excavated home 

 until it is several weeks of age. One of these birds was seen 

 on the Thames in the month of December, 1823, where it 

 attracted some attention, its peculiar mode of pattering over 

 the water causing it to be taken for a wounded land bird, and 

 inducing many persons to go in vain pursuit of the supposed 

 cripple. 



