306 
POPULAR HISTORY OP BIRDS. 
examined^ the undigested horny mandibles of cuttlefish^ so 
that these creatures form apparently their principal food ; 
and as the petrel family are to a certain extent nocturnal^ 
he infers that the small cuttlefish on which they feed ap- 
proach the surface only at night. 
What voyager on the pathless sea has not noticed the 
little companionable "Mother Carey^s Chicken/^ often 
ominous of storms to the sailor^ and so well alluded to by 
Charles Waterton, in his second voyage towards his pleasant 
wanderings in South America (p. 85)? "It must have 
been hatched in jEolus^s cave, amongst a clutch of squalls 
and tempests ; for, whenever they get out upon the ocean, 
it always contrives to be of the party .''^ Procellaria used 
to be its name, a word sounding of storms. Modern natu- 
ralists have restricted this appellation to larger birds, and 
have given it and its congeners the much more happy 
name of Sea-skimmer, for so may be translated " Thalassi- 
dromay The English name of Stormy Petrel, in its second 
part, reminds us of the Apostle who afterwards served his 
Lord so faithfully, and who once would walk on the waves 
of Gennesaret to meet him. Petrel, or little Peter, is a 
name derived from this well-known event. Sailors observe 
this little bird, or allied species, to come to the lee of their 
