Sea Swallows 



usual feelings. Probably their temperament is 

 as sunny as the bright skies in which they 

 calmly sail or speed their dizzy course the live- 

 long day ; as eager and buoyant as the spark- 

 ling, dancing waves that roll beneath their feet 

 throughout the summer. 



The return trip was enlivened by a pair of 

 stormy petrels — " Mother Carey's chickens " — 

 flitting hither and thither, quite in butterfly 

 fashion, near the boat, or skimming the ocean's 

 wavy pavement in eager search of palatable 

 morsels. The species I saw was one of the 

 smallest — about the size of a sparrow — but pre- 

 senting a rather large appearance by its great 

 extent of wings. When hovering near the 

 water it is not so easily discovered, as it is dusky, 

 almost black, throughout, save a conspicuous 

 spot of white upon the back. The petrels are 

 among the most oceanic birds, found hundreds 

 of miles out to sea, and probably never going on 

 shore except to nest. They are supposed to 

 appear as the harbinger, or else in the wake, of 

 a storm. The nest is made in holes in the 

 ground, sometimes beneath the surface of the 

 beach, under some large rock, and sometimes 

 on the side of lofty cliffs, when it is a long hori- 

 zontal excavation like that of the bank swallows, 



135 



