728 STORM-PETREL. 
and the Canaries, and has been traced down the coast of Africa as 
far as Cape Town during our winter months. Returning north- 
ward, we find it nesting plentifully in the Frroes, and it occurs, 
though it probably does not breed, on the coast of Norway, up to 
lat. 69°; it also visits Iceland, Southern Greenland, the Bay of 
Fundy and Newfoundland, but is not known to nest along the 
American sea-board. 
As a rule the Storm-Petrel does not begin to lay until the second 
half of June, though Mr. Turle found eggs on the Blaskets in the 
last week of May; on the other hand a young bird has been found 
in the nest as late as October 18th, and in the Feroes up to November. 
A slight bed of grass-stems is sometimes made at the end of a 
burrow in turfy soil, or else beneath stones, or in crevices of 
rocks ; but the single white egg—often faintly spotted with rusty 
dots—is also laid on the bare soil: measurements 1°15 in. by 
‘85 in. Incubation lasts about 35 days. A strong odour of 
musk pervades the burrow and its contents; and the sitting bird 
utters a note which is syllabled by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and 
Buckley as ¢-tee-¢ick, repeated several times in succession. The 
food consists of crustaceans, molluscs, small fish, and fatty matter of 
any kind; the last being frequently obtained by following in the 
wake of vessels. In fast steamers it is almost impossible to capture 
this and similar species, but when a sailing ship is going slowly 
through the water there is no difficulty in entangling them by trailing 
long threads—slightly weighted at the end—from the taffrail ; sailors, 
however, consider this proceeding unlucky, although they do not 
necessarily connect the appearance of these birds with foul weather, 
as has been asserted. In captivity the Storm-Petrel has been kept 
alive on oil for three weeks. This and some other members of the 
family are known by sea-faring folk as Mother Carey’s Chickens 
-(perhaps a corruption of AZater cara); while their habit of paddling 
along the waves is supposed to have been the origin of the word 
Petrel, after the Apostle Peter, who essayed to walk upon the water. 
The adult has the upper parts sooty-black, but the tail-coverts are 
white at their bases, while the edges of the wing-coverts are slightly 
edged with white ; under surface sooty-black, sides of vent white ; 
bill, legs and feet black. Length 6°5 in; wing 4°7 in. In this 
species, as is the case with all the Petrels, the sexes are alike in 
plumage. The young bird is rather browner than the adult, and 
shows little or no white on the wing-coverts or vent. Mr. J. H. 
Gurney has an albino example. 
