252 THE PETREL. 



Chickens, about the size, and in appearance not 

 unlike the Swift, or largest Swallow. Their whole 

 bodies seems to be filled and impregnated with oil, 

 to such a degree, that in some of the most remote 

 islands of the Hebrides, the inhabitants actually form 

 them into candles, by merely passing a rush through 

 the body and out at the beak, which is found to 

 burn as well as if dipped in tallow or any other 

 grease. So full are they of this oil, that the Ful- 

 mar uses it as a weapon of defence, and, when 

 taken, will squirt over the person who handles it, a 

 strong jet of pure oily liquid. "When shot, if it falls 

 into the sea, a partial calm is created by the quan- 

 tity ejected from its mouth. 



With their quantity of down, which supplies the 

 islanders with warm bedding,- and fat, which is 

 considered an efficacious remedy for wounds; as is 

 their oil, which is preserved in large bunches of long 

 bladders, made of the gorge or stomach of the Solan 

 Geese; these birds become more valuable to the 

 inhabitants than the poultry tribe to us. The poor 

 people of St. Kilda, in a word, prize them so highly, 

 that it is proverbial with them to say, " Deprive us 

 of the Petrel and Fulmar, and St. Kilda is no more." 



They build, like most other sea-birds, in holes 

 and chinks of rocks, or on the ledges of precipices ; 

 though upon Norfolk island, in Australia, a species 

 has been discovered which burrows in sand like 

 rabbits, lying hid in the holes by day, and sallying 

 forth in the evening in quest of food. Their reason 

 for concealing themselves appears to be well founded; 

 for no doubt this is the same species met with in the 

 other remote islands of the Southern Indian Seas, 



