GREBES AND DIVERS, PENGUINS, TUBE-NOSED BIRDS 435 



into the water and swam away, but two went running on, gradually disgorging their food, 

 in the utmost hurry, until they were able to rise, when they made off to sea." 



The Fulmar Petrel is a British bird. On St. Kilda, Professor Newton tells us, from 

 18,000 to 20,000 young are killed in one week in August, the only time when, by the custom 

 of the community, they are allowed to be taken. These, after the oil is extracted, serve the 

 islanders for winter food. 



The Storm-petrel is a small bird which breeds abundantly in St. Kilda and the Orkneys, 

 and so fearless that it will allow itself to be taken from the nest by hand. Immediately 

 this is done, the bird vomits a quantity of pure oil from its mouth. The wild fowlers 

 make use of this habit, capturing the bird, collecting the oil, and setting the prisoner free 

 again. A story is related of a storm-petrel which was kept in a cage for three weeks. It 

 was fed by smearing its breast with oil, which the bird swallowed by drawing the feathers 

 separately through its beak. These birds are popularly supposed to be seen only before 

 stormy weather, and therefore are not welcomed by sailors, who call them " Devil's Birds" and 

 " Witches." This bird seems to commend itself to some palates ; thus the late Mr. Seebohm says : 

 " Cooked on toast, like snipe, we found them delicious eating, very rich, but not at all fishy." 



We cannot refrain from a brief mention of the remarkable little DiVlNG-PETREL— remarkable 

 because of its unlikeness to all the other Petrels and its strong resemblance to the Auks. 

 But its tubular nostrils and certain anatomical characters proclaim its true affinities. " This 

 is a petrel," says Professor Moseley, " that has given up the active aerial habits of its allies, 

 and has taken to diving, and has become specially modified by natural selection to suit it 

 for this changed habit, though still a petrel in essential structure." On two occasions Professor 

 Moseley met with them in the Strait of Magellan, and describes the water as being covered 

 with these birds in flocks extending over acres, which were made black with them. 



CHAPTER VII 



STORKS, HERONS, AND PELICAN TRIBE 



THE Storks, Herons, and Pelican Tribe form a group of closely allied but externally very 

 unlike birds, distantly related to the Petrels on the one hand, and the Cranes and 

 Hawk Tribe on the other. 



The Storks 



There are few birds which have figured 

 more prominently in the realms of fairy- 

 tale and fable than the WHITE Stork. To- 

 day it is almost universally held in affectionate 

 regard, and in Holland, Denmark, and Germany 

 is afforded the strictest protection, every 

 effort being made, in localities where it is 

 plentiful, to induce it to build its nest 

 upon the house-roof Sometimes, to effect 

 this, its fondness for a stage of some sort 

 being known, a cart-wheel is set up, and 

 this generally proves successful, the grateful 

 bird erecting thereon its nest. Once 

 occupied, it may be held by several genera- 

 tions of tenants ; and year by year additions 

 are made to the nest, so that the original 

 shallow structure at last attains a height 

 of several feet. The material used in its 



/'/ olo In I M'd 



. f / 



FULMAR PETREL 



th food C 



T.Ike the •vulture^ this bird ivill so gorge itself 

 for a time J ^c fly 



to be 



able. 



