STORMY PETREL. 517 
only sixteen inches in length, and three feet three inches in extent; 
the colors and markings were the same as those of the male, with the 
exception of the tail, which was white, shafted, and broadly centred 
with black. 
The birds from which these descriptions were taken, were shot on 
the 25th of May, before they had begun to breed. The female con- 
tained a great number of eggs, the largest.of which were about the 
size of duck-shot ; the stomach, in both, was an oblong pouch, ending 
in a remarkably hard gizzard, curiously puckered or plaited, containing 
the half-dissolved fragments of the small silver-sides, pieces of shrimps, 
small crabs, and skippers, or sand fleas. J 
Onsome particular parts of the coast of Virginia, these birds are 
seen, on low sand bars, in flocks of several hundreds together.. There 
more than twenty nests have been found within the space of a square 
rod. ‘he young are at firstso exactly of a color with the sand on which 
they sit, as to be with difficulty discovered, unless after a close search. 
The Sheerwater leaves our shores soon after his young are fit for the 
journey. He is found on various coasts of Asia, as well as America, 
residing principally near the tropics ; and migrating into the temperate 
regions of the globe only for the purpose of rearing his young. He is 
rarely or never seen far out at sea; and must not be mistaken for an- 
other bird of the same name, a species of Petrel,* which is met with 
on every part of the ocean, skimming, with bended wings, along the 
summits, declivities, and hollows of the waves, 
eee eee 
STORMY PETREL.—PROCELLARIA PELAGICA.— Fic. 243. 
Arct. Zool. No. 464.— Le petrel, ou Voiseaux tempéte, Pl. enl. 993. — Bewich, ii 
223. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3034. 
THALASIDROMA WILSONIT.— Bonaparte.t 
Thalasidroma Wilsonii, Borap. Synop. p. 367. — Procellaria Wilsonii, Steph. Cont. 
Sh. Zool. eee 224, — Procellaria Wilsonii, Orn’s reprint of Wils. p. 94.— 
Journ. of the Acad. of N. 8. of Philad. iii. p. 231, pl. ix. 
THERE are few persons who have crossed the Atlantic, or traversed 
much of the ocean, who have not observed these solitary wanderers of 
* Procellaria Puffinus, tlie Sheerwater Petre). 
+ This species, confounded (and with little wonder, from its near alliance,) by 
Wilson, with the P. pelasgica, has been named as above by the Prince of Musigna- 
no, another tribute to the memory of our American ornithologist, and he has added 
the following differences and distinctive characters. Bonaparte has also added the 
T. Bullockit to the American list. 
The smaller Petrels of other countries are much allied to these; they amount to a 
considerable number, many of which are yet undetermined, and are confused with 
each other, in the want of proper distinguishing characters being assigned to each. 
It is from this that the P. pelasgica has been assigned a distribution so extensive. 
Some species are found in most latitudes ; and from their similarity most observers 
seem to be unaware when they have passed the boundary of one, and entered the 
opposite limits of another form. 
They resemble each other in another propensity, — that of following the course of 
vessels, attracted by the shelter afforded in the wake, or retained by the small ma- 
rine insects and seeds a are sucked into it, and the subsistence they may obtain 
