Wanderings of a Naturalist 



flying actively with graceful and charming flight even on 

 days of most brilliant sunshine. Yet one may time after 

 time visit an island on which thousands of these shearwaters 

 are nesting and yet not see a single one till over an hour 

 after sunset. 



The last summer visitor to arrive at the island is perhaps 

 the most charming and interesting of them all. 



Less than a swallow in size is this small bird of the ocean, 

 and so frail that it is hard to realize how it is able to face 

 the Atlantic storms of winter. To this small wanderer the 

 name storm petrel has been given from the fact that its 

 appearance to the mariner presages a storm or heavy weather. 



The word petrel is, I believe, derived from the bird's habit 

 of fluttering down to the surface of the ocean for an instant or 

 two and skimming the waves with drooping feet just touching 

 the sea — ^and thus, like St. Peter of old, walking on the water. 



It is not until the very end of June, when full summer is 

 come to the island, and when no night in these northerly 

 latitudes falls on the ocean, that the storm petrel comes in 

 from the immense tracts of the Atlantic. Here it has spent 

 the winter and spring, hundreds of miles from the nearest 

 land, and riding out the storms which, day after day, for 

 many weeks on end sweep the surface of the sea. The wing 

 power of this little petrel must be quite untiring, for there 

 must be many days and nights when the Atlantic is too 

 storm-tossed for it to alight on the waters for more than a 

 minute or two at a time. Thus throughout the long and dark 

 December nights and short hours of misty daylight the storm 

 petrel must wheel continuously in flight, skimming the great 

 waves and without a moment's respite battling with the 

 storm. 



How during such stormy spells can the small traveller 

 obtain sleep ? It would seem as though it were compelled to 

 forgo all rest for many days at a time. That not infre- 

 quently it is exhausted by the gales is apparent from the 

 fact that not a winter passes but a few of the birds, tired 



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