LEAST PETREL. 311 
stocking, two of which ! kept alive in my room for nearly three days, 
and derived very great pleasure from their company ; during the day 
they were mostly inactive, and after pacing about the floor for a short 
time, poking their head into every hole, they hid themselves between 
the feet of the table and the wall: I could not prevail upon them to 
eat any thing, though I tried to tempt them with fish and oil; their 
manner of walking is very light and pleasing, and differing from that 
of every other bird which I have seen; they carry their body so far 
forward and so nearly horizontal, as to give them the appearance of 
being out of equilibrium. In the evening, toward sun-set, they left 
their hiding places, and for hours afterwards, never ceased in their en- 
deavours to regain their liberty ; flying round and round the room, or 
fluttering against the windows ; when flying, their length of wing, 
and white above the tail, gives them a good deal the appearance of our 
House-Martin. I went to bed and watched them in their noiseless 
flight long ere | fell asleep, but in the morning they had disappeared ; 
one had fortunately made its escape through a broken pane in the win- 
dow which a towel should have occupied, the other had fallen into a 
basin, full of the yolks of eggs which I had been blowing, and was 
drowned. I regretted much the fate of a being so interesting, by its 
very remarkable, wandering, solitary, and harmless life. Before leaving 
Shetland [ again visited the island of Oxna, and though so late as the 
30th of June, they were only just beginning to lay their eggs. In 
Foula they breed in the holes in the cliff, at a great height above the 
sea; but here under stones which form the beach, at a depth of three 
or four feet, or more, according to that of the stones; as they go down 
to the earth, beneath them, on which to lay their eggs. In walking 
over the surface, I could hear them, very distinctly, smging in a sort 
ef warbling chatter, a good deal like swallows when fluttering above 
our chimneys, but harsher ; and in this way, by listening attentively, 
was guided to their retreat, and, after throwing out stones as large as 
I could lift on all sides of me, seldom failed in capturing two or three 
seated on their nests, either under the lowest stone or between two of 
them. The nests, though of much the same materials as the ground 
on which they were placed, seem to have been made with care ; they 
were of small bits of stalks of plants, and pieces of hard dry earth. 
Like the rest of the genus, the Stormy Petrel lays invariably one egg 
only. During the day-time they remain within their holes ; and though 
