Shearwaters and Petrels 



over the waves in wide curves, now deep in the trough, now 

 high above the great swells breaking into foam ; but always with 

 "its long, narrow wings set stiffly at right angles with the 

 body," to quote Brewster. Sir T. Browne, who was the first to 

 speak of this bird or its immediate kin, wrote a quaint account 

 of it which is still preserved in the British Museum. "It 

 is a Sea-fowl," he says, "which fishermen observe to resort to 

 their vessels in some numbers, swimming (sic) swiftly too and 

 fro, backward, forward and about them, and doth, as it were, 

 radere aquam, shear the water, from whence, perhaps, it had its 

 name." No doubt the venerable ornithologist meant to say skim- 

 ming instead of swimming, for the shearwater almost never 

 rests on the water, except, as is supposed, after dark, to sleep. 

 So characteristic is this constant roving on the wing, that the 

 Turks around the Bosphorus, where these birds have penetrated, 

 think they must be animated by condemned human souls; hence 

 the name Ames damnees given the poor innocents by the French. 

 Indeed, all we know about these birds is from hasty glances as they 

 sweep by us at sea; for, although common immediately off our 

 coast in winter, they are never seen to alight on it; and as for 

 either the bird's nest, eggs, and fledglings, they are still abso- 

 lutely unknown to scientists. A species that is abundant off 

 Australia burrows a hole in the ground near the shore and 

 deposits one pure white egg at the end of the tunnel, just as 

 many petrels do; and it is reasonable to suppose the greater 

 shearwater makes a similar nest. Some white eggs received 

 from Greenland are thought to belong to this species. 



Wilson's Stormy Petrel 



(Oceanites oceancius) 



Called also: MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKEN; DEVIL'S BIRD 



Length — 7 inches. Very long wings, with an extent of 1 6 inches, 

 give appearance of greater size. 



Male and Female — Upper parts, wings, and tail sooty black; paler 

 underneath, and grayish on wing coverts. The upper tail 

 coverts and frequently the sides of rump and base of tail, 

 white. Bill and feet black. Legs very long, and webs of 

 toes mostly yellow. Tail square and even. 



Range — Atlantic Ocean, North and South America, nesting in 



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