PROCELLAEIA. 
807 
ships on the approach of storms or during their occurrence. 
Its long wings^ hght body^ and long legs, ending in webbed 
feet, are all admirably suited to help it in its rapid motion ; 
and many a scrap and many a minute production of the 
sea it picks up during its frequently repeated stoops. Its 
eye is as active as its other motions ; and there is a pic- 
turesqueness about these, well described by Wilson, and 
admirably rendered by Gould and Audubon, in their great 
books on the birds of Australia and America. 
The species of the genus Vrocellaria are numerous, and 
abound in the Southern Seas. Mr. Arthur Adams'^ says 
that they differ much in their modes of flight. He describes 
the Giant Petrel (Vrocellaria gigantea) as flying in a wild 
and sweeping manner, poising himself, and often remaining 
motionless in the air. The Cape Pigeon (P. Capensis), the 
back of which is variegated with white and black, has nei- 
ther a powerful nor rapid flight ; while a species, entirely 
of a sooty black, has a rapid, steady flight, like the wide 
sweep of some gigantic swift. A species called the Whale- 
bird^^ by seamen, and two others (the P. turtur and P. 
Forsteri) describe vast circles in the air, and dart suddenly 
on their prey. The nostrils, both in Procellaria and Tha- 
^ Voyage of Samaraiig, vol. ii. p. 231. 
