THE FULMAR PERTEL. 



619 



therefore by a curious process of reasoning is taken for its cause. A sailor once told me 

 very frankly, after I had held a short argument with him, that " they mostly takes things 

 wrong side forrards," and so it is with the Stormy Petrel, the pilot-fish, and many other 

 creatures. 



A very much larger species is the Fulmar Petrel. 



This Petrel is very plentiful in the island of St. Kilda. and an excellent account of the 

 bird and its importance to the inhabitants has been given by Mr. McGillivray, who visited 





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STORMY PETREL.— ThaiassidToma pelagica. 



the island in 1860. "This bird exists here in almost incredible numbers. ... It forms 

 one of the principal means of support to the inhabitants, who daily risk their lives in its 

 pursuit. The Fulmar breeds on the face of the highest precipices, and only on such as are 

 furnished with small, grassy shelves, every spot on which, above a few inches in extent, 

 is occupied with one or more of its nests. The nest is formed of herbage, seldom bulky, 

 generally a mere shallow excavation in the turf and the withered tufts of the sea-pink, in 

 which the bird deposits a single egg of a pure white color when clean, which is seldom the 

 case." 



Leach's, Bulwer's, Black-capped, Least Petrel, Wilson's, Black Petrel, Ashy, Fork-tailed, 

 Hornby's, and White-bellied Petrel are all North American birds — some of them confined 

 to the California coast and northward on the Pacific. 



