322 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



almost daily, answered to its name like any domestic animal, 

 and ate almost out of the hand. One year, however, very 

 near the period of its final disappearance, Willie did not pay 

 his respects to the family for eight or ten days after the 

 general flock of gulls were upon the coast, and great was 

 their lamentation for his loss, as it was feared he was dead: 

 but to the surprise and joy of the family, a servant one 

 inorning came running into the breakfast-room with delight, 

 announcing that Willie was returned. The whole company 

 rose from the table to welcome the bird. Food was supplied 

 in abundance, and Willie with his usual frankness ate of it 

 heartily, and was as tame as any bam-yjurd fowl about the 

 house. In a year or two afterwards this grateful bird disap- 

 peared for ever. 



Mother "^^^ Stormy Petrel or Mother Carey's Chicken, 

 Carey's is a small black bird well known to mariners, and 

 Chicken, familiar to all at sea in stormy weather. It 

 follows in the wake of ships and is regarded as a prophet of 

 evil, at least in so far as stormy weather is concerned. It 

 is seen in many parts of the ocean busily engaged in searching 

 for food, braving the fury of the storm and skimming along 

 the waves, sometimes above their tops, and sometimes screen- 

 ing itself from the blast by sinking down into the billows 

 between them. It nests in all but inaccessible places, the 

 Island of St. Kilda being the chief British breeding place of 

 the Fulmar variety. These are of great importance to the 

 natives who run great risks in searching for their eggs and 

 who catch the birds for the purposes of food, and for the 

 oil which they supply. 



Catohine the The danger attaching to the capture of the 

 stormy Petrel in its rocky haimts in the Hebrides is thus 

 ® ™ vividly described by Mr. Drosier. " As the stormy 

 petrel, is scarcely ever to be seen near the land, except in 

 very boisterous weather, one of the natives for a trifling 

 remuneration, agreed to traverse the face of a rock, and take 



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