Wanderings of a Naturalist 



in its nest no longer than twenty-one days at the outside. 

 What other bird also is still tending its young of the first 

 brood in mid-October ? 



At another nesting site of the storm petrel about a hun- 

 dred yards away a very small chick was found. Its quill 

 feathers were only just showing, and it was about three weeks 

 old, so that it could not have left the nest until the very end 

 of November. This chick was apparently the result of a 

 second laying, for a cracked egg was lying beside it. 



One would imagine that a small chick left in late autumn 

 in a dark hollow, draughty and cold, and unattended through- 

 out the hours of daylight — for, as I have mentioned before, 

 the storm petrel never broods its young in the daytime after 

 the first week — would succumb to the harshness of the 

 weather, but as a protection these fledglings have a coat of 

 down of remarkable warmth and thickness. 



What an extraordinary experience their first flight must 

 be. After two months in the cramped quarters of a dark 

 hollow to emerge one late autumn night and perhaps under 

 the guidance of the parent birds to take to the water, and 

 never approach land, or perhaps even see it, till the following 

 summer. 



In this connexion, Bishop Montgomery, writing* of the 

 sooty petrel (Piiffinus tenuirostris), which breeds in the 

 southern hemisphere, gives a most interesting account 

 of these birds. He makes the noteworthy observation that 

 the young petrels are left by their parents in their nesting 

 hollows after they have reached a certain age. After about a 

 fortnight hunger drives them into the open air, and unaided 

 they have to find their way to the water, where instinct alone 

 must teach them to feed and fly. 



It would seem probable that this may also be the case with 

 the storm petrel, but its life history is so far little investigated. 



* Cornhill Magazine — November, 1920. 

 76 



