Shearwaters and Petrels 



southern seas (Kerguelen Island) in February; afterward 

 migrating northward. 

 Season — Common summer visitor off the coast of the United 

 States. 



This is the little petrel most commonly seen off the coast of 

 the United States in summer, silently flitting hither and thither 

 with a company of its fellows like a lot of butterflies in their 

 airy, hovering flight. Owing to the spread of their long wings 

 they appear much larger than they really are, for in actual size the 

 birds are only a trifle longer than the English sparrow, and look 

 like the barn swallow ; yet these tiny atoms of the air spend their 

 "life on the ocean wave," and have "their home on the rolling 

 deep," 



" O'er the deep ! o'er the deep ! 

 Where the whale and the shark and the swordfish sleep — 

 Outflyingthe blast and the driving rain," 



like the stormy petrel of the east Atlantic ( Procellaria pela- 

 gica), an even smaller species, which doubtless was the bird 

 " Barry Cornwall" had in mind when he wrote his famous verses. 



Those who go down to the sea in ships are familiar with the 

 petrels that gather in flocks in the wake of the vessel, coursing 

 over the waves, now down in the trough, now up above the crest 

 that threatens to break over their tiny heads ; half leaping along 

 a wave, half flying as their distended feet strike the water, and 

 they bound upward again ; darting swallow-fashion and skim- 

 ming along the surface, or flitting like a butterfly above the 

 refuse thrown overboard from the ship's galley. " But the most 

 singular peculiarity of this bird," to quote Wilson, for whom it 

 was named, "is its faculty of standing, and even running, on the 

 surface of the water, which it performs with apparent facility. 

 When any greasy matter is thrown overboard, these birds instantly 

 collect around it, and face to windward, with their long wings 

 expanded, and their webbed feet patting the water, which the 

 lightness of their bodies and the action of the wind on their wings 

 enable them to do with ease. In calm weather they perform the 

 same manoeuvre by keeping their wings just so much in action 

 as to prevent their feet from sinking below the surface." It is 

 this appearance of walking on the waves, like the Apostle Peter, 

 that has caused his name to be applied to them. 



Particles of animal matter, particularly anything fat or oily, 



69 



