KEEL-BREASTED BIRDS. 243 
Order III. Longipennes (Long-winged). General 
Characteristics —This order includes the birds with ex- 
tremely long, slender, and pointed wings, generally aquatic 
but not submarine swimmers. They have wondrous pow- 
ers of flight, and long, slender, and compressed bills; the 
anterior toes webbed. 
The Petrels (Procellariidz) are aquatic swimming 
birds rarely approaching the shore, except to breed. The 
bill is complicated, seemingly composed of several parts, 
the nostrils opening from distinct tubes. The stormy 
petrel,* or Mother Carey’s chicken (P. pelagica), is a typi- 
cal form, ; 
The Giant Petrel (Ossifraga gigantea), of the South- 
ern Ocean, is the largest. They and their large allies prey 
upon young gulls. Among the Antarctic ice is found the 
snow-white petrel (Pagodroma nivea). 
NotTe.—About Kerguelen’s Land the petrels invariably burrow in 
the ground, those of the genus Oestre/ata forming burrows six inches 
in diameter, ending in a round chamber in which is placed the nest. 
The solitary petrel forms a burrow ten feet long. The diving petrels 
(Pelecanoides) also burrow and are wonderful divers, unlike others of 
the tribe. 
The Prions are small, gray, petrel-like birds, with 
boat-shaped bills, that honey-comb the ground at Kergue- 
len’s Land with their nests. 
The Shear-Waters (Pxfinus) somewhat resemble 
the petrels. The wandering shear-water is common on 
the Atlantic coast, and attains the length of twenty inches, 
the wing fourteen inches. The Antarctic species burrow, 
the peat-beds at Tristan da Cunha being entirely honey- 
combed by them. The European species breed on the 
rocks and in rabbit-burrows. The largest member of 
the family is the albatross (Fig. 278), common in the 
* Petrels when placed upon the deck of a vessel have great difficulty 
in rising. 
