STORMY PETREL. ,q X 



hour. But the most singular peculiarity of this bird is its 

 faculty of standing, and even running, on the surface of the 

 water, which it performs with apparent facility. When any 

 greasy matter is thrown overboard, these birds instantly collect 

 around it, and facing to windward, with their long wings 

 expanded, and their webbed feet patting the water, the light- 

 ness of their bodies and the action of the wind on their wings 

 enable them to do this with ease. In calm weather they per- 

 form the same manoeuvre, by keeping their wings just so much 

 in action as to prevent their feet from sinking below the sur- 

 face. According to Buffon * it is from this singular habit 

 that the whole genus have obtained the name petrel, from the 

 apostle Peter, who, as scripture informs us, also walked on 

 the water. 



As these birds often come up immediately under the stern, 

 one can examine their form and plumage with nearly as much 

 accuracy as if they were in the hand. They fly with the wings 

 forming an almost straight horizontal line with the body, the 

 legs extended behind, and the feet partly seen stretching 

 beyond the tail. Their common note of " toeet, weet," is 

 scarcely louder than that of a young duck of a week old, and 

 much resembling it. During the whole of a dark, wet, and 

 boisterous night which I spent on deck, they flew about the 

 after-rigging, making a singular hoarse chattering, which in 

 sound resembled the syllables patret tu cuk cuk tu tu, laying 

 the accent strongly on the second syllable tret. Now and then 

 I conjectured that they alighted on the rigging, making then 

 a lower curring noise. 



Notwithstanding the superstitious fears of the seamen, who 

 dreaded the vengeance of the survivors, I shot fourteen of these 

 birds one calm day in lat. 33,° eighty or ninety miles off the 

 coast of Carolina, and had the boat lowered to pick them up. 

 These I examined with considerable attention, and found the 

 most perfect specimens as follow : — 



* Buffon, tome xxiii. p. 299. 



