Class II. SHEAR-WATER PETREL. so7 



to be taken the beginning of August, when 

 great numbers are killed by the person who 

 farms the isle : they are salted and barelled, 

 and when they are boiled, are eaten with pota- 

 toes. During the day they keep at sea, fish- 

 ing ; and towards evening return to their young, 

 whom they feed, by discharging the contents of 

 their stomachs into their mouths ; which by 

 that time is turned into oil. By reason of the 

 backward situation of their legs they sit quite 

 erect. They quit the isle the latter end of Au- 

 gust, or beginning of September ; and, from ac- 

 counts lately received from navigators, we have 

 reason to imagine, that like the Storm-finch, they 

 are dispersed over the whole Atlantic ocean. 



This species inhabits also the Orkiiey isles, 

 where it makes its nest in holes on the earth near 

 the shelves of the rocks and headlands ; it is 

 called there the Lyre, and is much valued, both 

 on account of its serving as food, and for its fea- 

 thers. The inhabitants take and salt them in 

 August for winter provisions, when they boil 

 them with cabbage ; they also take the old ones 

 in March; but they are then poor, and not so 

 well tasted as the young : they appear first in 

 those islands in February. 



