Clafs II. S T O R M F I N C H. 435 



lighted, the flame is fed by the fat and oil of the body. 

 Except in breeding time it is always at lea ; and is 

 feen all over the vaft Atlantic ocean, at the greater! 

 diftance from land : it prefages bad weather, and 

 cautions the feamen of the approach of a tempeft, by 

 collecting under the ftern of the mips : it braves the 

 utmoft fury of the ftorm, fometimes fkimming with 

 incredible velocity along the hollows of the waves, 

 fometimes on the fummits : Clvjius makes it the 

 Camilla of the. fea. 



Vel mare per medium fluflu fufpenfa tumenti 

 Ferret iter, ceieres nee tingeret squore plantas. 



Thefe birds are the Cypfetti of Pliny, which he places 

 among the Apodes of Ariftotle : not becaufe they 

 wanted feet, but were Kan'ono^**, or had bad, or ufe- 

 lefs ones ; an attribute he gives to thefe fpecies, on a 

 fuppofition they were almoft always on the wing. 

 Hardouin, a critick quite unfkilled in natural hiflory, 

 imagines them to be martins, the Cypfetti of Arifio- 

 tle-\\ but a little attention to the text of each of thofe 

 antient naturalifts, is fufficient to evince that they are 

 very different birds ; the latter very accurately def- 

 cribes the characters of that fpecies of fwallow : while 

 Pliny expreiTes the very manner of life of our Petrel. 



" Nidificant in fcopulis, hse funt quse toto mari cer- 

 nuntur : nee unquam tarn longo naves, tamque con- 

 tinuo curfu recedunt a terra, ut non circumvolitent 

 cas Apodes." Lib. x. c. 39. 



* Arlfl. 17. 



•J- p. 1067. 



Genus 



