THE OPEN SEA 83 
likely that it points to the way in which the 
birds’ feet go pitter-pattering as they touch the 
waves in their flight. 
The Storm Petrel is a sooty-black bird, with 
a little white about the tail and under the 
wings, just over six inches in length, with long, 
somewhat swift-like wings well-suited for 
rapid flight, and with long legs, the meaning 
of which is obscure. Its relationships are with 
albatross, shearwater, fulmar, and the like, and 
in nowise with the gulls. This is shown by the 
fact that the horny bill is made up of numerous 
pieces (taking our thoughts back to reptiles’ 
scales), by the curious drawing out of the two 
nostrils into a double-barrelled tube, by the 
single chalky-white egg with a few reddish- 
brown spots, by the very long sooty-ash down 
covering the nestling, and by many features 
going much deeper. 
The Storm Petrel flies close to the waves 
with its web-feet touching now and then, and 
at other times it paddles about on the surface. 
Its food consists of small fishes, crustaceans, 
molluscs, and other Open-Sea animals. At the 
nesting-time it seems to be fond of morsels of 
sorrel! The crop contains a good deal of oil 
which the bird vomits up forcibly when taken 
