STORMY PETREL. 
387 
overhanging the lower like that of a bird of prey ; head, back, 
and lower parts, brown sooty black ; greater wing-coverts, 
pale brown, minutely tipt with white ; sides of the vent, and 
whole tail-coverts, pure white ; wings and tail, deep black, 
the latter nearly even at the tip, or very slightly forked ; in 
some specimens, two or three of the exterior tail-feathers were 
white for an inch or so at the root ; legs and naked part of 
the thighs, black ; feet, webbed, with the slight rudiments of 
a hind toe ; the membrane of the foot is marked with a spot of 
straw yellow, and finely serrated along the edges ; eyes, black. 
Male and female differing nothing in colour. 
On opening these I found the first stomach large, containing 
numerous round semitransparent substances of an amber colour, 
which I at first suspected to be the spawn of some fish ; but on 
a more close and careful inspection, they proved to be a vege- 
table substance, evidently the seeds of some marine plant, and 
about as large as mustard seed. The stomach of one contained 
a fish, half digested, so large that I should have supposed it 
too bulky for the bird to swallow ; another was filled with the 
tallow which I had thrown overboard ; and all had quantities 
of the seeds already mentioned both in their stomachs and 
gizzards ; in the latter were also numerous minute pieces of 
barnacle shells. On a comparison of the seeds above men- 
tioned with those of the gulf-weed , so common and abundant 
in this part of the ocean, they were found to be the same. 
Thus, it appears that these seeds, floating perhaps a little 
below the surface, and the barnacles with which ships’ bottoms 
usually abound, being both occasionally thrown up to the 
surface by the action of the vessel through the water in blowing 
weather, entice these birds to follow in the ship’s wake at such 
times, and not, as some have imagined, merely to seek shelter 
from the storm, the greatest violence of which they seem to 
disregard. There is also the greasy dish washings, and other 
oily substances thrown over by the cook, on which they feed 
with avidity, but with great good nature, their manners being 
