STORMY PETREL. 389 



them crowd in her wake, seeming then more than usually active 

 in picking up various matters from the surface of the water. 

 This presentiment of a change of weather is not peculiar to 

 the petrel alone, but is noted in many others, and common to 

 all, even to those long domesticated. The woodpeckers, the 

 snow-birds, the swallows, are all observed to be uncommonly 

 busy before a storm, searching for food with great eagerness, 

 as if anxious to provide for the privations of the coming tem- 

 pest. The common ducks and geese are infallibly noisy and 

 tumultuous before falling weather ; and though, with these, 

 the attention of man renders any extra exertions for food at 

 such times unnecessary, yet they wash, oil, dress, and arrange 

 their plumage with uncommon diligence and activity. The 

 intelligent and observing farmer remarks this bustle, and 

 wisely prepares for the issue ; but he is not so ridiculously 

 absurd as to suppose that the storm which follows is produced 

 by the agency of these feeble creatures, who are themselves 

 equal sufferers by its effects with man. He looks on them 

 rather as useful monitors, who, from the delicacy of their 

 organs, and a perception superior to his own, point out the 

 change in the atmosphere before it has become sensible to his 

 grosser feelings, and thus, in a certain degree, contribute to his 

 security. And why should not those who navigate the ocean 

 contemplate the appearance of this unoffending little bird in 

 like manner, instead of eyeing it with hatred and execration ? 

 As well might they curse the midnight lighthouse, that, star- 

 like, guides them on their watery way, or the buoy that warns 

 them of the sunken rocks below, as this harmless wanderer, 

 whose manner informs them of the approach of the storm, and 

 thereby enables them to prepare for it. 



The stormy petrels, or Mother Carey's chickens, breed in 

 great numbers on the rocky shores of the Bahama and the 

 Bermuda Islands, and in some places on the coast of East 

 Florida and Cuba. They breed in communities like the bank- 

 swallows, making their nests in the holes and cavities of the 

 rocks above the sea, returning to feed their young only during 



