224 WILSON'S PETREL. 



you glide over the curling eddies caused by the motion of the rudder. You 

 shall have all possible attention paid you, and I will crawl to the camboose, 

 in search of food to support your tiny frames in this hour of need. But at 

 length, night closes around, and I bid you farewell. 



The gale is over; the clear blue of the shy looks clearer than ever, the 

 sun's rays are brighter, on the quiet waters the ship seems to settle in repose, 

 and her wings, though widely spread, no longer swell with the breeze. At 

 a distance around us the dusky wanderers are enjoying the bright morning; 

 the rudder-fish, yesterday so lively, has ended its career, so violently was it 

 beaten by the waves against the vessel; and now the Petrels gather around 

 it, as it floats on the surface. Various other matters they find; here a small 

 crab, there the fragments of a sea-plant. Low over the deep they range, 

 and now with little steps run on the waters. Few are their notes, but great 

 their pleasure, at this moment. It is needless for me to feed them now, and 

 therefore I will return to my task. 



It would be extremely difficult for any individual to determine the extent 

 of the movements of the three species of Petrel seen on the waters of the 

 Atlantic. My opinion is that until their breeding places are repeatedly 

 visited by naturalists, little can be known respecting the range of their flight. 

 I have crossed the ocean many times, and have always paid more or less 

 attention to these birds; yet I am as ignorant of their migrations as my pre- 

 decessors. I have rarely seen Wilson's Petrel farther to the eastward than 

 the Azores, and beyond these islands it generally abandoned the vessel. 

 Along the American coast, I have not met with it to the northward beyond 

 the 51st degree of latitude; while to the southward I have rarely observed 

 many on the Gulf of Mexico; nor do I believe that any breed on the shores 

 of the Floridas, or on the Bahama Islands, as alleged by Wilson, who, it 

 would appear, stated so from report. Petrels are rarely destroyed by men, 

 quadrupeds, or rapacious birds, when breeding; to the former they are of no 

 value as an article of food, and by the latter they are seldom sought after; 

 consequently they are more likely to return to their breeding places than 

 most other birds, many of which are frequentty induced to abandon them on 

 account of the persecutions to which they are subjected. I have found the 

 Forked-tailed Petrel breeding on our coast, in the fissures of rocks above 

 the reach of the spray, and Wilson's digging for itself burrows in the sand 

 or loose earth, on low islands. The Thalassidroma ' pelagica I have never 

 found breeding on any part of our coast; but it is well known that it resorts 

 to holes on certain of the Shetland Islands, among the blocks and stones of 

 which the beaches are formed; though it appears that in some spots, where 

 the fishermen are in the habit of destroying them, many resort to the 

 elevated fissures of the rocks, where also a few of the Forked-tailed species 



