266 PRO CELLARING. THALASSIDROMA. 
322. Thalassidroma pelagica. Storm Petrel. 
Tail slightly rounded ; bill and feet black ; plumage greyish- 
black above^ sooty-brown beneath ; secondary coverts mar- 
gined externally with dull greyish-white; feathers of the 
rump, and sides of abdomen, white ; upper tail-coverts white, 
broadly tipped with black ; length nearly six inches. Young 
of lighter tints, with the feathers edged with reddish-brown. 
Male, 5f§, 13|-, y 6 5 , lib t 8 ^ tV Pemale, 5 T 9 ^, 13^. 
This species, the smallest of the European web-footed birds, 
is indigenous with us, breeding in Cornwall, Shetland, Orkney, 
and the Hebrides, in holes in the rocks, or under stones on the 
sea-beach. The egg is single, nearly elliptical, an inch and a 
twelfth long, ten-twelfths broad, pure white, without gloss, 
generally with a belt of minute dark-red dots at the large 
end. It disappears from all its breeding-places after the 
young are reared, and seems to reside on the open sea during 
winter. It has a buoyant and gliding flight, floats lightly on 
the water, swims with ease, lets down its feet occasionally 
when skimming over the weaves, and has thus been imagined 
to walk on the sea ; whence the name Petrel or little Peter, 
given to this and other species. It frequently appears in the 
wake of vessels, and picks up portions of animal and vege- 
table substances ; but generally its gullet and stomach are 
found to contain oily matter, which, on being seized, it vo- 
mits, like the other species of this family. I have seen the 
delicate- looking little creatures, in rough weather, gliding 
over the waves, at the height of scarcely a foot above the 
surface, which they followed in all its undulations, mounting 
to the top of the wave, there quivering in the blast, then 
shooting down the slope, resting a moment in the sheltered 
hollow, and again ascending. 
Mother Carey's Chicken. Storm-finch. Little Petrel. 
Water- witch. Alamouti. Asilag. Spency. Sea-Swallow. 
Procellaria pelagica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 212., — Procella- 
ria pelagica, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 826. — Procellaria pelagica, 
Temm. Man. d’Ornith. ii. 810. — Thalassidroma pelagica. 
Storm Petrel, MacGiilivray, Brit. Birds. 
