STORMY PETREL. 
165 
Rumeroiis appearance has frequently thrown a 
“'onientary damp over the mind of the hardiest seaman. 
, ft is the business of the naturalist, and the glory of 
• •'uosophy, to examine into the reality of the.se things, 
dissipate the clouds of error and superstition where- 
they begin to darken and bewilder the huniair 
"derstanding, and to illustrate nature with the radi- 
of truth. With these objects in view, we shall 
proceed, as far as the few facts vve possess nill 
l^iTnit, in our examination into the history of this 
j. tue stormy petrel, the least of the whole twenty- 
species of its tribe enumerated by ornithologists. 
'■•^lebrated species, 
j. The stormy pet 
species of its ....... - — „ — , 
the smallest of all palmated fowls, is found over 
whole Atlantic Ocean, from Europe to North 
^•»erica, at all distances from land, and in all weathers ; 
'>1 is particularly numerous near vessels inimcdiately 
receding and during a gale, when Hocks of them crowd 
’! l*er wake, seeming then more than usually active in 
'^.'‘"'ng up various matters from the surface of the 
atcr_ This pre.sentiment of a change of weather is 
peculiar to the petrel .alone, but is noted in many 
hers, and common to all, even to those long domes- 
j '^''ted. The woodpeckers, the snow-birds, the swal- 
are .all observed to be uncommonly busy before a 
j *^n, searching for food with great eagerness, as if 
J'^'ous to provide for the privations of the coming 
lj.*[H'®st. The common ducks and the geese are infal- 
noisy and tumultuous before falling weather ; and 
^Ogh, with these, the attention of man renders any 
ilii 
exertions for food at such times unnecessary, yet 
n Wash, oil, dress, and arrange their plumage, with 
^j^eotunion diligence and activity. The intelligent and 
Serving farmer remarks this bustle, and wisely pre- 
*or the issue ; but he is not so ridiculously absurd 
hv 1 fhat the storm which follows is produced 
•Sel ' agency of these feeble creatures, who are them- 
Oii'ii* ®qual sufferers by its effects with man. He looks 
them rather as useful monitors, who, from the deli- 
of their organs, and a perception superior to his 
