270 SWIMMERS. 



seek out the resorts of the whale, on whose carcase and those 

 of other cetaceous animals they often make a gratifying feast, 

 and are well known to the whale-fishers who frequent these 

 hyperboreal seas. They attend the ships in all their progress. 

 Emphatically birds of the tempest, these Petrels ride securely 

 amidst its horrors, profiting by the agitation and destruction 

 which it spreads around. Aware of the object which the 

 whaler has in quest, they follow the vessel and watch the 

 result. As soon as a whale is moored to the side of the ship 

 and begins to be cut up, an immense muster takes place, 

 sometimes exceeding a thousand, of these greedy birds, all 

 stationed in the rear, watching for the morsels which are wafted 

 to leeward. The peculiar chuckling note by which they ex- 

 press their eager expectation, their voracity when seizing on 

 the fat, and the large pieces which they swallow, the envy 

 shown towards those who have obtained the largest of these 

 morsels, and often the violent measures taken to wrest it from 

 them, afford to the sailors curious and amusing spectacles. 

 The surface of the sea is sometimes so covered with them that 

 a stone cannot be thrown without'one being struck. When an 

 alarm is given, innumerable wings are instantly in motion, and 

 the birds, striking their feet against the water to aid their 

 flight, cause a loud and thundering plash. 



The Petrel is not uncommon in some of the islands off the 

 north of Scotland. At St. Kilda, one of the Hebrides, it 

 breeds, and supplies the inhabitants with a vast quantity of 

 oil, which is used for culinary as well as medicinal purposes. 

 According to Pennant, " no bird is of such use to the islanders 

 as this ; it supplies oil for their lamps, down for their beds, a 

 delicacy for their tables, a balm for their wounds, and a medi- 

 cine for their distempers." He adds " that it is a certain 

 prognostication of the change of winds. If it come to land, 

 no west wind is expected 'for some time, and the contrary 

 when it returns and keeps to sea." 



Its food is chiefly fish, particularly those that are the most 

 fat ; its stomach is indeed generally charged with oil, which it 

 has the power of ejecting forcibly from the bill and nostrils as 



