68 HOMES -WITHOUT HANDS. 



already dug, it will make use of it, and accordingly is fond of 

 haunting rocky coasts, and of depositing its eggs iu some suitable 

 cleft. It also will settle in a deserted rabbit-burrow, if it can 

 find one sufficiently near the sea, and is found breeding in many 

 places which would equally suit the puffin. 



Failing, however, all natural or ready-made cavities, the Stormy 

 Petrel is obliged to excavate a tunnel for itself, and even on 

 sandy ground is able to make its own domicile. Off Cape Sable, 

 in Nova Scotia, there are many low-lying islands, the upper parts 

 of which arc of a sandy nature, and the lower composed chiefly 

 of mud. Not a hope is there in such localities of already existing 

 cavities, and yet to those islands the Petrels resort by thousands, 

 for the purpose of breeding. The birds set resolutely to work, 

 and delve little burrows into the sandy soil, seldom digging 

 deeper than a foot, and, in fact, only making the cavity sufficiently 

 large to conceal themselves and their treasure. 



Each bii"d lays a single egg, which is white, and of small 

 dimensions. The young are funny-looking objects, and resemble 

 puffs of white down rather than nestlings. The parent attends 

 to its young with great assiduity, feeding it with the oleaginous 

 fluid which is secreted in such quantities by the digestive organs 

 of this bird. So large indeed is the amount of oil, that in some 

 parts of the world the natives make the Stormy Petrel into a 

 lamp, by the simple process of drawing a wick through its body. 

 The oil soon rises into the wick, and bums as freely as in any of 

 the really rude and primitive, though ornamental lamps of the 

 ancients. 



Many shore-going birds are equally notable for their capacities 

 of producing fat in large quantities when they procure a plentiful 

 supply of food. The common sand-piper, for example, which 

 haunts the muddy shores of tidal rivers, and feeds upon the 

 various living creatures with which the mud is peopled, accu- 

 mulates fat to such an extent that to skin the bird properly is 

 almost impossible, the thick coating of fat between the skin and 

 the flesh melting by the heat of the fingers, and running like oil 

 over the feathers. I could never bring myself to believe in the 

 petrel-lamp until I had opened the sand-piper when in full 

 condition. 



The Petrel only feeds its young by night, remaining on the 

 wing during the day, and flying to vast distances from the land. 



