166 
there concealed during the day, and coming forth to 
feed at twilight. The rushing of the bird obtained, 
on the light at Plumb-point, would not have been 
remarkable had it been a duck, a plover, or a sand- 
piper, for it is known that. when those birds make 
their migratory aporoaches to shore, they will dash 
themselves against the lights to which they steer 
when making the land at night, but the same head- 
long instinct surprises me in this petrel. If it were 
habitual in this class of birds, we should have heard 
of flocks of Mother Carey’s chickens, rushing in at 
cabin windows, attracted like nocturnal moths to 
candles;—but I know of no such incident. I take 
our sizeable petrel to be the diablotin of the Wind- 
ward Islands, described by Attwood in his Dominica, 
theugh he speaks of white in the urder plumage, it 
occurs in our bird in the upper, and of the whole ap. 
pearance being singular. This is his description.— 
‘“* The diablotin feeds on fish, flying in great flocks 
to the sea-side at night-time, with hideous sereams ~ 
like the owl, which it resembles in its dislike to 
day light. The nests are made in holes in the 
mountains, and the flesh is considered a delicacy, 
particularly when salted.” ‘To the questionable 
taste here noticed, I would add, that it may be then 
taken as a sort of cod’s liver for its oil, when dressed, 
as Soyer recommends, the genuine liver to be.” 
From the dimensions ef our bird, 13 inches long, 
by some 26 inches in the extent of wing, and from 
the proportions and character of the bill and nagal 
tubes, and the grooved mandible, I should say the 
Blue Mountain petrel, must be classed with the 
