:i6 



cassell's book ok birds. 



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, seemed to have been made with ease. They were of small bits of stalks 

 of plants and pieces of hard dry earth." Like the rest of the genus, the Storm Petrel lays invariably 

 cne egg only. During the daytime they remain within their holes, and though the fishermen are 





3§lgyiEp^f§|=- 



THE COMMON STORM petrel {Thalassidfoma pelagica). ONE-HALF natural size. 



constantly passing over their heads, the beach under which they breed being appropriated for the 

 drying of fish, they are then seldom heard, but towards night become extremely querulous, and when 

 most other birds are gone to rest issue forth in great numbers, spreading themselves far over the 

 surface of the sea. The fishermen then meet them numerously, and, though they have not previously 

 seen one, upon throwing pieces of fish overboard are sure to be surrounded by them; the sharpness 

 of their vision enabling them to see food trom afar, which, from the activ'ty of their movements, they 

 are not long in appropriating. 



