STORMY PETREL. 
381 
On some particular parts of the coast of Virginia these birds 
are seen, on low sand bars, in flocks of several hundreds 
together. There more than twenty nests have been found 
within the space of a square rod. The young are at first so 
exactly of a colour with the sand on which they sit, as to be 
with difficulty discovered unless after a close search. 
The Sheerwater leaves our shores soon after his young are 
flit for the journey. He is found on various coasts of Asia, as 
well as America, residing principally near the tropics ; and 
migrating into the temperate regions of the globe only for the 
purpose of rearing his young. He is rarely or never seen far 
out at sea; and must not be mistaken for another bird of the 
same name, a species of Petrel,* which is met with on every 
part of the ocean, skimming with bended wings along the 
summits, declivities, and hollows of the waves. 
STORMY PETREL. — PROCELLARIA PELAGICA. 
Plate LX. Fig. 6. 
Arct. Zool. No. 464. — Le petrel, ou Poiseaux tempete, PI. enl. 993. — Bewick , 
ii. 223. - — Peale's Museum, No. 3034. 
THALASIDROMA WILSONII. — Bonaparte. f 
Thalasidroma Wilsonii, Bonap. St/nop. p. 367 Procellaria Wilsonii, Steph. Cont. 
Sh. Zool. xiii. p. 224. — Procellaria Wilsonii, Orel's reprint of Wils. p. 94. — 
Journ. of the Acad, of N. S. of Philad. iii. p. 231, pi. ix. 
There are few persons who have crossed the Atlantic, or 
traversed much of the ocean, who have not observed these 
solitary wanderers of the deep skimming along the surface of 
* Procellaria Puffinus, the Sheerwater Petrel. 
f This species, confounded (and with little wonder, from its near alliance,) 
by Wilson, with the P. pelasgica, has been named as above by the Prince of 
Musignano, another tribute to the memory of our American ornithologist, and 
he has added the following differences and distinctive characters. Bonaparte 
has also added the T. JBullockii to the American list. 
The smaller Petrels of other countries are much allied to these; they amount to 
a considerable number, many of which are yet undetermined, and are confused 
with each other, in the want of proper distinguishing characters being assigned to 
