STORMY PETREL. 
383 
or other, in creating them. “ Nobody,” say they, 66 can tell 
any thing of where they come from, or how they breed, though 
(as sailors sometimes say) it is supposed that they hatch their 
eggs under their wings as they sit on the water.” This 
mysterious uncertainty of their origin, and the circumstances 
above recited, have doubtless given rise to the opinion so 
prevalent among this class of men, that they are in some way 
or other connected with that personage wdio has been styled 
the Prince of the Power of the Air. In every country where 
they are known, their names have borne some affinity to this 
belief. They have been called Witches * Stormy Petrels , the 
Devil's Birds , Mother Carey's Chickens probably from some 
celebrated ideal hag of that name ; and their unexpected and 
numerous appearance has frequently thrown a momentary 
damp over the mind of the hardiest seaman. 
It is the business of the naturalist, and the glory of philo- 
sophy, to examine into the reality of these things ; to dissipate 
the clouds of error and superstition wherever they begin to 
darken and bewilder the human understanding, and to illustrate 
nature with the radiance of truth. With these objects in view, 
we shall now proceed, as far as the few facts we possess will 
permit, in our examination into the history of this celebrated 
species. 
The Stormy Petrel , the least of the whole twenty-four species 
of its tribe enumerated by ornithologists, and the smallest of 
all palmated fowls, is found over the whole Atlantic Ocean, 
from Europe to North America, at all distances from land, and 
in all weathers, but is particularly numerous near vessels 
immediately preceding and during a gale, when flocks of them 
crowd in her wake, seeming then more than usually active in 
picking up various matters from the surface of the water. 
This presentiment of a change of weather is not peculiar to 
* Arctic Zoology , p. 464. 
f This name seems to have been originally given them by Captain Carteret’s 
sailors, who met with these birds on the coast of Chili. See Hawkesworth’s 
Voyages , vol. i. p. 203. 
