PHALAROPE. 365 



its true light. " The Petrels," says he, " seem to repose in a common 

 breeze, but, upon the approach or during- the continuation of a gale, 

 they surround a ship and catch up the small animals which the agitated 

 ocean brings near the surface, or any food that may be dropped from 

 the vessel. Whisking, with the celerity of an arrow, through the deep 

 valleys of the abyss, and darting over the foaming- crest of some moun- 

 tain wave, they attend the labouring bark in all her perilous course. 

 When the storm subsides they retire to rest and are no more seen." 1 

 Would our author, then, have us to infer that they sleep during a calm, 

 and only feed when roused by the roar of a storm. 



In a voyage to America, Colonel Montagu noticed two or three 

 small congregations, and these generally followed the ship for se- 

 veral hours, flying round, and playing about in the manner of swal- 

 lows, frequently stooping to pick up bits of biscuit thrown over for 

 the purpose. Fortunately, however, we looked in vain each time for 

 the accompanying tempest, which these bewitched chickens of Mother 

 Cary were supposed to forbode. Sailors, naturally superstitious, have 

 always considered this little bird the forerunner of stormy and tempes- 

 tuous weather, as the appearance of the kingfisher denoted fine weather, 

 denominated the halcyon days by the ancients. These auguries, how- 

 ever, may be founded in fact, for as the kingfisher is only seen on the 

 sea-shores, or on the coasts of bays and estuaries in the temperate 

 months, so the Petrel, whose rapid wing outstrips the wind, flies from 

 the storm, and in its passage over the vast Atlantic, may truly warn 

 the mariner of the approaching tempest. Thus all that is related is 

 not fiction ; thousands have witnessed the tempest that has succeeded 

 the appearance of these little harbingers of iEolus ; the fact is only 

 known to the mariner, he does not reason upon the occurrence, and, 

 unable to account for their sudden appearance, calls in the aid of super- 

 stition. The body is of so oily a nature, that if a wick is drawn through 

 from the mouth to the vent and lighted, it will burn as a lamp ; and it is 

 said to be actually used for that purpose in the Ferroe Islands. Some 

 few instances are recorded of its being killed far inland ; one is men- 

 tioned in Latham's synopsis to have been shot at Oxford. We are 

 also informed that some are annually seen on the western part of the 

 peninsula of Cornwall, about Marazion and Penzance ; in the former 

 of which places we saw one that was taken. 



PETTYCHAPS.— A name for the Fauvette and the Chiff-chaff. 



PHALAROPE (Phalaropus platy?*hinchus, Temminck.) 



Tringa Lobata, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 249. 8 Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 674 — Flem. Br Anira. 



p. 100 Grey Phalarope, Lath. Syn. 5. p. 272. a young bird in winter plumage. 



1 Journ. of a Naturalist, p. 196. 3d. edit. 



