THE SOOTY PETREL. 415 



bill rather produced and slender, both mandibles of equal 

 length, and both hooked downward at the tip ; the nostrils 

 in a double tube advanced upon the ridge of the upper 

 mandible. Their chief difference of habit when on land is, 

 that they build near the level of the water, and not in the 

 upper fissures of the very lofty rocks. Their corresponding 

 habit at sea is, that they skim more along the surface of the 

 water, and do not rise to lofty flights ; and it is on that 

 account that the name of shearwater has been given to the 

 best known species. Their bodies are compactly formed and 

 very close in the plumage ; their wings very long, strong, 

 and pointed ; their tails rather short and conical ; their feet 

 rather slender, the tarsi compressed laterally, the three front 

 toes very long and elastic, and completely webbed, and only 

 a short spur on the tarsus in place of a hind toe. Egg single 

 and large. 



THE SOOTY PETREL (Pvffinm 



Only a single individual of this species has been seen on 

 the British shores, or indeed on those of any part of Europe. 

 It is very similar to some of the species which have been 

 observed in such numbers by navigators in the southern 

 seas ; but whether the individual in question came from 

 those distant parts of the world, we have no means of ascer- 

 taining. Indeed, there is some confusion about the species 

 of the birds of the wide and distant seas, the name of sooty 

 having been applied to all those of which it expresses the 

 colour, whether of the same species, or even genus, or not. 



It was found, at the close of a severe gale, in the middle 

 of August, 1828, reposing on the water like a duck, at the 

 mouth of the Tees ; so that, wherever it came from, it was 

 evidently a storm-driven bird, and it does not belong to any 

 species at present known in the northern hemisphere. Its 

 length is eighteen inches ; the length of each wing twelve j 



