The Storm Petrel. 2" 



free of down on the upper parts, but retained a considerable amount beneath, 

 " giving him the appearance of a bird sitting in a nest of wool." This bird 

 could fly well, and its wings were in constant motion during the night. It would 

 not have left the nest naturally until the greater part of the down had 

 disappeared, — at least I received a well-fledged nestling with but very little 

 down on its belly from the colony on Skomer Island. The Rev. S. H. Saxby reared 

 five young Storm Petrels upon train-oil which they took from a brush in much 

 the same way that they would have received it from their parents' bills. Others 

 have attempted to keep adult Petrels in confinement ; but these birds appear to 

 be unable to live long at a distance from the sea. The best plan of ascertaining 

 whether Petrels are nesting in a locality is to induce a terrier to take up the 

 search. The dog's keen olefactory nerves are certain to detect the musky odour 

 which is inseparable from birds of this family. Indeed I owed to this circum- 

 stance my first introduction to the nesting habits of the Storm Petrel. It was 

 when lunching on an Island frequented by Petrels, that I noticed a terrier 

 scraping at the surface of the little brae of greeu turf on which we had sat down 

 to rest, and discovered that we were sitting upon the habitations of the very 

 birds which were the object of the days' quest. Persons well acquainted with 

 Petrels prefer to hunt for them in the evening, when the birds break the long 

 silence of the hours of daylight, and awake to the business and pleasures of the 

 night season. It is always difficult to render the cries of sea-birds in writing ; 

 but the peculiar breeding note of the Storm Petrel is well expressed by Messrs. 

 Harvie-Brown and Buckley by the syllables " ti-tee-tik," repeated several times 

 in succession. I have never heard this Petrel utter any note upon the wing, — 

 It is when the birds are underground that they cry to one another. When the 

 duties of reproduction have been completed, the Petrels of all ages return to a 

 pelagic life, — traversing the ocean in all directions in search of food. The 

 stomachs of those which I dissected in the breeding season contained nothing 

 but pure oil, which a living bird always endeavours to eject when held in the 

 hand. They appear to feed upon small shells, the otolites of fishes, and such oily 

 substances as these birds can find floating upon the surface of the waves. The 

 late Mr. Rodd stated that this Petrel was frequently to be seen flying and 

 hawking about in pursuit of small insects in fine summer evenings in Mount's 

 Bay, — " sometimes dipping, but seldom alighting on the sea, skimming for a few 

 seconds with open wings, and mounting again in the air." Such Petrels as I 

 have examined in a fresh state in autumn and winter always proved to be 

 absolutely empty, being birds which had allowed themselves to be caught in the 

 centre of an Atlantic hurricane, and driven from the open ocean to take shelter 



