GENUS PROCELLARIA (Linn.) 



tmiiis wbs tin generic title originally proposed to embrace all those smallest varieties of Petrels 

 1 «rhiofa have already been described, as well as the Australian representative which now alone hears 



tii. I,., i f Prooellaria. Subsequently the euphonious and nappy title of* Thalaxxidromw was adopted, 



Hignifving "sen wanderers," the earliest observers being struck with wonder at these little marvels, 

 incapable of weariness ill their flight or dismay at the fiercest storm as they swept whole oceans in 

 learoh of (bod. Upon more scientific observation, the various species were classified as already described, 

 ainl the ..in representative of the presenl genus now bears the once comprehensive title of Procellaria. 



PROCELLARIA NEREIS (Gould). 



I , R E V II. f C 'KED S TORM PETREL. Genus : Procellakia. 



'MHIS finishes the li>t of the Australian Birds which are described under the traditional and ominous 

 I name of Storm Petrels. It also posesses all the interesting characteristics by which, with its 

 fellows, it earned the title. Before leaving the subject, it may be of interest to remark that a patient 

 observer does not hastily class the prophetic instincts ascribed to these birds by sailors as mere blind 

 BUperstitlon. In England, when the swifts and swallows skim close to the earth, rain is threatened ; 

 when they Boar high, tine weather is promised. This is long ago established as a rough but sure 

 meteorological guide, because in the denser atmosphere which precedes rain, the flies on which the swallows 

 feed come nearer earth, and the birds follow their victims. So with the Petrels; the murky air that 

 bodes a tempest seems to thrill them with a weird exhilaration before it is perceived by the common 

 Bailor win- dors not watch the movements of the barometer, and when he sees them wheeling in ever 

 widening circles and screaming through the rigging, he dreads, all the more by anticipation, the disaster 

 which may be hidden in the coming storm. As to his belief that to kill these augurs makes foundering 

 more likely, the marshalling of facts will not convince him there ; the root of such fears is beyond the 

 power <>f demonstration to dislodge. 



The food of this species is the same as that of the varieties already dealt with. 



The Bexea are alike in plumage, and the female is only very slightly smaller than the male. 



Head, neck, chest and upper part of the back, dusky-brown; wing-coverts, grey; wings, brown; 

 rump and upper tail-coverts, grey; tail, greyish-brown; under surfaces, dirty white; irides, brown; bill, 

 brown : legs and feet, black. 



Length, 6£ inches; bill, 9 / 16 inch ; wing, 5 £ inches; tail, 2^ inches ; tarsi, 1^ inch. 

 Habitat-: Ha>.-> .Strait- and southern coasts of Australia. 



