MOTHER GARY'S CHICKEN. 
281 
collect in bands, which resort to particular breeding-places, on head- 
lands or unfrequented islands. They nestle in the crevices of rocks, 
in holes in the turf, or under stones on the beaches. The female 
lays a single large, elliptical, white egg. The young remain in the 
nest until able to fly. The sitting birds are easily caught on their 
nests, as they seldom attempt to fly off. On being seized, they, 
like the Fulmars, discharge the contents of their stomachs, 
generally consisting of oil. They feed on oily and fatty substances, 
small Crustacea, and mollusca, which they pick up as they skim over 
the waters. They float lightly like Gulls, but are incapable of 
diving. Their flight is buoyant and rapid, somewhat resembling 
that of swallows. The species, which are not numerous, are distin- 
guished chiefly by their relative size, and the form of the tail. One, 
Tlialassi^oma pelagica, is common in the British Seas, and breeds 
in our northern islands ; another, Thalassidroma Lcachii, although 
'uncommon, breeds in St. Kilda. Some individuals only of other 
two species have been met with in Britain. 
These birds are confounded by navigators under the general name 
of Mother Gary's chicken, so that the limits of the distribution of 
the species are not well known. They are held in abhorrence by 
sailors, being supposed to prognosticate stormy weather, especially 
when they fly around or in the wake of the ship. The circumstances 
under which they approach vessels have not, however, been correctly 
described. Some say they come up before a gale tor shelter, being 
able by their rapid flight to outstrip it; while others allege that, in 
rough or calm weather, before a gale or before a calm alike, they 
make their appearance, and that their object is simply to pick up the 
objects of food raised by the agitation of the water, or such as are 
thrown overboard. 
Where mountain billows roll and loud winds sing, 
The stormy Petrel, on untiring wing, 
Still skims along the ocean's troubled breast, 
And safely steers above each foaming crest ; 
As the prophetic herald glances by, 
The anxious sailor knows that danger's nigh. 
So sings Mrs. Meredith, known, before she left her native 
lakes and romantic glens of Wales for the settler's home in 
Tasmania, as Miss Twamley ; and James Montgomery, in 
his Pelican Island, tells us Low — 
Here run the stormy Petrels on the waves. 
As though they were the shadows of themselves, 
Beflectcd from a loftier flight through space. 
