THE PETREL. 265 



is rather increased than lessened for they are in a 

 most hazardous position ; but they are preserved, 

 though by what means we have yet to learn. 



The Razor-bills were by no means so numerous 

 as the Guillemots, and, generally speaking, did not 

 mix with them ; seeming to hold themselves apart, 

 as the better bird of the two, peering at one another, 

 and pluming their coats with a sort of dandy satis- 

 faction at their superior brilliancy and glossiness. 



Besides these more common species, there are 

 others, rarely found in Britain, being chiefly confined 

 to the colder and more inhospitable regions of the 

 northern or southern divisions of the globe, where 

 they exist in numbers almost surpassing our powers 

 of computation. One species, in particular, the little 

 Auk, or Greenland Dove (Alca alle), Sir Edward 

 Parry met with by millions, when the ships got 

 amongst the ice in particular spots, and they were 

 killed for sea provisions. But in the southern he- 

 mispheres they appear to be even still more abundant. 



Adjacent to the islands of Australia"*, the Sooty 

 Petrels (Procdlarla pacifica^) congregate in incre- 

 dible masses, of from fifty to eighty yards in depth, 

 and of three hundred yards or more in breadth, not 

 scattered, but flying as compactly, and as close, as 

 the free movement of their wings will allow, and 

 passing, for a full hour or more, with a swiftness 

 little inferior to that of a pigeon. On these data, it 

 has been calculated that the number in such a flight 

 would amount to one hundred and fifty-one million, 

 five hundred thousand birds ! about one -fifth of the 

 whole population of the globe. These birds live 

 * Flinders' Australia. 



