2o8 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



Family— PROCELLARIID/E. Subfamily— PROCELLARIINJE. 



Storm Petrel. 



Procellaria pelagica (Linn.) 



THIS Petrel is a veritable gipsy wanderer, for it roams over the Atlantic all 

 the summer, even reaching Sonth Greenland, while winter often finds it 

 flitting across the surf that breaks upon the shores of South Africa. It has 

 occurred as late as May in Table Bay. Possibly Petrels do not breed until they 

 are two or three years old, because single individuals occur in the interior of 

 England in such unlikely months as June and July. Though a visitor to the 

 Canaries, this Petrel does not seem to breed south of Gibraltar, but it nests on 

 islands in the Mediterranean, off the North-west coast of France, and in the 

 Channel Isles. Only one of the Scilly Isles affords a home to this Petrel, but it 

 breeds on Eundy and on Skomer Island. In Scotland it nests on the Pentland 

 Skerries, but is more plentiful in Orkney and Shetland. It nests in the Outer 

 and Inner Hebrides, Ailsa Craig, as also on Rathlin Island, Blaskets, Skelligs, and 

 other islands off the coasts of Ireland. The Swallow-like flight of the Petrel, as 

 seen dipping over the surface of the sea, has often recalled the attempt of St. Peter 

 to walk upon the Sea of Tiberias. Thus German sailors and Venetian fishermen 

 apply the titles of " Petersvogel " and " Osel de S. Pietro " to the Petrel. The 

 English synonym of " Mother Carey's Chicken " is probably a corrupted invocation 

 of the Virgin Mary, as " Mater cara," called forth by the belief that the arrival 

 of a Petrel, in the wake of a vessel, presages a spell of broken weather. It is 

 this association of the Petrel with stormy seas, which has induced the Germans 

 to term it the " Sturmvogel," or " Sturmmove." On the coast of Sicily it is 

 nicknamed the "Aceddu di malu tempu"; it is known to Italians generally as 

 the " Uccello delle tempeste." The French call it the " Oiseau de tempgte," or 

 " Satanique," the latter term conveying their instinctive feeling that the little sea- 

 bird, which braves the fury of the tempest with such intrepidity, is associated in 

 some mysterious way with the powers of evil. 



The Storm Petrel seems to shun the neighbourhood of land, preferring to 

 follow the open sea for many months together, and those the wildest months in 

 the whole year. There is, indeed, some doubt as to the winter habits of this 



