THE MANKS PETREL, OR SHEARWATER. 417 



of the neck, and the margins of some of the upper feathers 

 with a greyish tinge, which is rather more conspicuous in 

 winter than in summer. The bill is dark-brown, the nasal 

 tube on the column about three quarters of an inch in length, 

 the bill in point extending an inch more, rather slender, a 

 little compressed towards the tip ; the mandibles both bend 

 downwards at the extremities, and their tips meeting so as 

 to be able to seize a very small object. 



In what manner their very singularly construced bill is 

 used upon all occasions, is not very well known, because 

 their motion along the water is so quick and peculiar, that 

 it is difficult to observe what they are after. It is said, 

 however, that at certain seasons they feed during the night 

 upon the small phosphorescent animals with which the sea so 

 much abounds. 



Their motion along the water is not swimming, or walk- 

 ing, or flying, but a sort of union of all the three. It is 

 swifter than any bird could swim, and only the feet touch 

 the water, at least the under part of the body does not, and 

 the wings have always as much air under them as enables 

 the bird to use them both for buoyancy and for progress. 

 But the points of the wings tip the water, and the feet and 

 them appear to keep stroke in a way which can be under- 

 stood when seen, but not very clearly explained, because 

 there is nothing analogous with which to compare it. They 

 have none of the splash and splutter which ducks and other 

 birds of that character produce when they rise or take the 

 water obliquely. They seem to make the same use of the 

 water that a horse does of a good and firm highway a ful- 

 crum to spring from and nothing more no lagging or labour- 

 ing as if it were miry, or even spongy and elastic. At times, 

 they appear to have the power of so " taking the wind " with 

 their wings, that it gets betwee-n their oblique position and 



VOL. II. 2 E 



