NATURAL HISTORY. 373 



bird as the precursor of a storm. It is the smallest of the 

 web-footed birds. Few storms are violent enough to keep 

 this curious little bird from wandering over the waves in 

 search of the food that the disturbed water casts to the sur- 

 face. Like the Fulmar, the Stormy Petrel is so exceedingly 

 oily in texture, that the inhabitants of the Feroe Islands draw 

 a wick through its body and use it as a lamp. "Wilson gives 

 the following account of its habits while following a ship under 

 sail : 



" It is indeed an interesting sight to observe these little birds 

 in a gale, coursing over the waves, down the declivities, up the 

 ascents of the foaming surf that threatens to bend over their 

 heads ; sweeping along the hollow troughs of the sea, as in a 

 sheltered valley, and again mounting with the rising billow, 

 and just above its surface, occasionally dropping its feet, which, 

 striking the water, throws it up again with additional force ; 

 sometimes leaping with both legs parallel, on the surface of the 

 roughest waves for several yards at a time. Meanwhile it 

 continues coursing from side to side of the ship's wake, making 

 excursions far and wide, to the right and to the left, now a 

 great way ahead, and now shooting astern for several hundred 

 yards, returning again to the ship as if she were all the time 

 stationary, though perhaps running at the rate of ten knots 

 an hour ! But the most singular peculiarity of this bird is 

 its faculty of standing and even running on the surface of the 

 water, which it performs with apparent facility. When any 

 greasy matter is thrown overboard, these birds instantly collect 

 round it, and facing to windward, with their long wings ex- 

 panded and their webbed feet patting the water, the lightness 

 of their bodies and the action of the wind on their wings en- 

 able them to do this with ease. In calm weather they per- 

 form the same mano3uvre by keeping their wings just so much 

 in action as to prevent their feet from sinking below the sur- 

 face. According to Buffon, it is from this singular habit that . 

 the whole genus have obtained the name Petrel, from the 

 apostle Peter, who, as Scripture informs us, also walked on the 

 water,"-* 



* Wilson's Ornithology, vol. vii. p. 92. 



