PETREL. 



Hand In hand, 

 Pofters of the fea and land. 



They often appear the day before a firorm, fometimes Ikimming the 

 furface of the water, following the courfe of the waves v/ith expanded 

 and feemingly motionlefs wings ; as the winds increafe fo do their 

 numbers j gathering round the fhip, fometimes flying round, at others 

 floating on the waves, but always keep near, till the return of fair 

 weather *. , 



They. are found as high north as the Kamtfchatkan feasj and along the 

 weftern coafts o^ America, in different places, as low as Staaten land. 

 They have been feen in the northern hemifphere in March, April, and 

 May. In the fouthern, for example, in ^erra del FiiegOy and Kerguelins 

 ifland, in December. They are very foolifh birds ; and were found in 

 the laft place fo tame, as to fuffer the feamen to knock them on the 

 head with Hicks. The Ruffians, on account of the ftupidity of thele 

 birds, call them Gloupchi f. They feed on the carcafes of feals, whales, 

 or any others they meet with. M. Bougainville intimates, that they 

 alfo prey on live birds j for he fpeaks of them as the enemy of cer- 

 tain kinds frequent on the Falkland ifles J. From the vaft ftrength of 

 their bills, they certainly are a redoubtable foe : the Spaniards, from that 

 circumftance, call them ^ehrantahuejfos, or the Bme-l/reaker\\. Our 

 circumnavigators eat of them, and call them a good food. 



It is very probable that they migrate, with the Albatros, into the fou- 

 thern hemifphere, and breed there. The eggs of the Pintado Petrel 

 were found on Kerguelins land in December. A fmall blue Ipecies, and a 

 fmall black one, were alfo feen at the fame time afhore there §. This, 

 concurrence of four fpecies of a genus, which is never found on landj, 

 unlefs at the feafon of breeding, renders certain that this Is one of the 



* Vllea'i voy. II. 220. oftavo, tranf.— P«»«//'s voy. tranf. loo. 



■}■ Defer. Kamt/chatka, 492, 505. J Beugai /ivilW s vov, tia.n{. 62. 



U W/oa, § Cook's laft voy. I. 87. 



places. 



