Sheanwaters and Petrels 



Among the many senseless stones sailors tell of the petrel is 

 that it never goes ashore to nest, but carries its solitary egg under 

 its wing until hatched. But the members of the Transit of Venus 

 expedition in the Southern Ocean, several years ago, discovered 

 a large colony of these birds nesting on Kergulen Island. Here- 

 tofore, ornithologists, misled by Audubon, had confounded the 

 nest of Wilson's with that of Leach's petrel. Nests containing 

 one white egg each were found in the crevices of rock during 

 January and February. In the latter month the author has seen 

 the birds in great numbers off the Azores, but, unhappily, not on 

 them, for the steamer did not stop there; however, it is not un- 

 likely they nest on these islands, which would seem a convenient 

 rallying place for the birds from the African coast and those that 

 course along the Western Atlantic from Labrador to Patagonia. 

 The young birds are fed by that disgusting process known as 

 regurgitation, that is, raising the food from the stomachs by the 

 parents, which Nuttall says sounds like the cluttering of frogs. 

 Baskett writes in his "Story of the Birds" : "The baby petrel 

 revels in the delights of a cod-liver-oil diet from the start." 



Ordinarily quite silent birds, these petrels sometimes call out 

 weet, meet, or a low twittering chirp that might be written pe- 

 up. But it is near its nest that a bird is most noisy ; and until 

 very recently the home life of this common petrel was absolutely 

 unknown. v 



Leach's, the White-rumped, or the Forked-tailed Petrel, as it is 

 variously known (Oceandroma leucorhoa) was the bird carefully 

 studied by Audubon, but confused by him with Wilson's petrel, 

 in which mistake many ornithologists followed him. In size and 

 plumage the birds are almost identical, but the forked tail of 

 Leach's petrel is its distinguishing mark. The outer tail feathers 

 are fully a half inch longer than the middle pair, making the bird 

 look more swallow-like even than Wilson's. 



Leach's petrels, while quite as common on the Pacific coast 

 as on the Atlantic, have their chief nesting sites in the Bay of 

 Fundy, while a few nest off the -coast of Maine; for it is a more 

 northern species than Wilson's, Virginia and California being its 

 southern boundaries. Nevertheless it is by no means so com- 

 mon off the coast of New England and the Middle States, except 

 around the lighthouses, as Wilson's petrel, that must migrate 



71 



