STORM PETRELS. 421 



minately, whether they are disturbed in their nesting-places, 

 in the air, or on board ship, where they often take shelter, 

 both from apparent fatigue and from storms. If this is the 

 case, they very ill deserve the character given to them by 

 sailors, of being not merely the harbingers, but actually the 

 bringers, of foul weather, under the stigma of which they 

 have long lain as " Mother Carey's chickens ;" though, if 

 they discharge the contents of their stomach as readily when 

 annoyed by the wind, as when annoyed by other means, 

 they merit the name of quieters of the ocean ratiier than 

 that of disturbers. 



That they follow ships is true, because there is generally a 

 quantity of oily matter left in the wake of a ship. They 

 also come to ships in greater numbers, and rest on them more 

 readily in stormy weather, or even before the storm actually 

 sets in, than they do when the air it still and the sea smooth. 

 But, in these cases, it is the storm that brings the birds, and 

 not the birds that bring the storm j and, therefore, the birds 

 are valuable for the warning that they give, rather than, in 

 any way, objects of dislike or persecution. 



One can easily see, from the habit of these birds in feeding, 

 that they require smoother water, and are therefore less able 

 to keep the sea when violently agitated, than birds which 

 skim the surface for the purpose of fishing than the terns, 

 for instance.* Their superior buoyancy, and their form, 

 both tend to give the wind more hold upon them ; and the 

 troubled water which brings the food of the others more 



* The petrels make their way easily, even in the storm, and amidst 

 the rolling billows. Strong as the wind may be, the trough of the 

 waves, like a deep valley, is comparatively calm; here they find shelter, 

 and while yet on wing, they trip with their feet on the slanting surface 

 of the long wave, over which they dash as it sinks, and gain another 

 trough. Small marine insects and molluscs constitute their food, toge- 

 ther with the oil which, disengaged from dead animal matter, floats on 

 the sea, and smears the feathers of the breast, which thev draw through 

 the bill. M. 



