Birds of Massachusetts. 237 
that surrounded the vessel, and found among them 
specimens of all the three. This is the most sus- 
picious, never flying close to the vessel like the 
others; it is not known to alight on the rigging, 
and rests less frequently upon the water. But its 
food is the same, consisting of such small fish and 
crustacea as it can pick up from floating seaweed on 
the water, or oily substances thrown from vessels 
into the sea. These birds are able to bear consider- 
able abstinence, but everything which they swallow, 
seems to be turned to oil, and their flesh is rank and 
unpleasant to the taste. They are found breeding: 
in the fissures of rocks, above the reach of the spray, 
while the preceding burrows in the sand on low 
islands. 'Though this bird seems so bound to the 
ocean, by all its habits and wants, I have had one 
brought to me which was taken near Chicopee river 
in Springfield, seventy miles from the shore. 
The Furwan PETREL, Procellaria glacialis, has 
been found by Audubon from Long Island to New- 
foundland, but I do not know that any one has, as 
yet, been taken within the State. This is the bird 
so well known as the main dependence of the singu- 
lar inhabitants of St. Kilda, one of the western isles 
of Scotland. 
The Snow Goose, Anser hyperboreus, breeds in 
Arctie America, resorting to the sandy shores of lakes 
and rivers. They are so cautious as to station one 
of their number as a sentinel, to warn them of ap- 
proaching danger. They return with their families 
