352 
VERTEBEATA. 
the raging blast, now stooping to the angry waves, and now shooting upward toward the clouds, 
as if enjoying a frolic. At night, they usually repose by sitting on the water. They breed on 
the rocky coasts, especially of the islands of Europe and America ; the eggs are two, of a soiled 
white. When engaged in incubation, they may be taken off their nests with the hand. The 
appearance of these birds at sea has been supposed to portend stormy weather, and they are 
therefore not welcome visitors to sailors, Avho call them DeviVs Birds, Witches, and Mother 
Carey's Chickens. The last title is said to have been originally bestowed upon them by Captain 
Carteret's sailors, probably from some celebrated ideal hag of that name. Their habit of 
paddling along the surface of the water obtained for them the name of Petrel, from the Apostle 
Peter, who walked upon the water. 
Other species are the Fork-tailed Petrel, T. Leachii, found on our coast from Massachiisetts 
to Baffin's Bay : Wilson's Stormy Petrel, T. Wilsonii, found along the Atlantic coast of North 
America: Hornby's Petrel, T.Hornhyi, and the Black Stormy Petrel, T. melania, both found 
on the northwest coast of North America. The Black-and-White Stormy Petrel, Fregetta 
Latorencii, is found on the coast of Florida. The habits of all are similar to those of the Stormy 
Petrel we have described. It is probably to the birds of this species — the fearless riders of the 
storm and the tempest — that the poet Brainard refers in the following powerful lines : 
THE sea-bird's SONG. 
"On the deep is the mariner's danger, 
On the deep) is the mariner's death ; 
Who, to fear of the tempest a stranger, 
Sees the last bubble burst of his breath? 
'Tis the sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird, 
Lone looker on despair ; 
The sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird, 
The only witness there ! 
"Who watches their course, who so mildly 
Careen to the kiss of the breeze ? 
Who lists to their shrieks, who so wildly 
Are clasped in the arms of the seas ? 
'Tis the sea-bird, &c. 
" Who hovers on high o'er the lover, 
And her who has clung to his neck? 
Whose wing is the wing that can cover 
With its shadow the foundering wreck? 
'Tis the sea-bird, &c. 
" My eye in the light of the billow, 
My wing in the wake of the wave ; 
I shall take to my breast for a pillow 
The shroud of the fair and the brave ! 
I'm the sea-bird, &c. 
" My foot on the iceberg has lighted 
When hoarse the wild winds veer about; 
My eye, when the bark is benighted, 
Sees the lamp of the light-house go out! 
I'm the sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird, 
Lone looker on despair; 
The sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird, 
The only witness there !" 
Fossil Birds. — In a former part of our work we have spoken of the remains of the gigantic 
Moa or Diornis, found in New Zealand, which, with other facts, has led to the opinion that this 
great island, together with Norfolk Island, Chatham Island, and others in that quarter, are but 
the mountain tops of a continent, now sunk beneath the ocean, but formerly peopled with birds 
of strange forms, of which we now only find the bones, or a few scattered and nearly extinct 
species. Probably there were also other animals there as pecuhar as these birds. We have 
