388 
STORMY PETREL. 
so gentle, that I never observed the slightest appearance of 
quarrelling or dispute among them. 
One circumstance is worthy of being noticed, and shows the 
vast range they take over the ocean. In firing at these birds 
a quill-feather was broken in each wing of an individual, and 
hung fluttering in the wind, which rendered it so conspicuous 
among the rest as to be known to all on board. This bird, 
notwithstanding its inconvenience, continued with us for 
nearly a week, during which we sailed a distance of more than 
four hundred miles to the north. Flocks continued to follow 
us until near Sandy Hook. 
The length of time these birds remain on wing is no less 
surprising. As soon as it was light enough in the morning 
to perceive them, they were found roaming about as usual ; 
and I have often sat in the evening, in the boat which was 
suspended by the ship’s stern, watching their movements, until 
it was so dark that the eye could no longer follow them, 
though I could still hear their low note of weet weet , as they 
approached near to the vessel below me. 
These birds are sometimes driven by violent storms to a 
considerable distance inland. One was shot some years ago 
on the river Schuylkill near Philadelphia ; and Bewick men- 
tions their being found in various quarters of the interior of 
England. From the nature of their food, their flesh is rank 
and disagreeable ; though they sometimes become so fat, that, 
as Mr Pennant, on the authority of Brunnich, asserts, 66 the 
inhabitants of the Feroe Isles make them serve the purposes 
of a candle, by drawing a wick through the mouth and 
rump, which, being lighted, the flame is fed by the fat and 
oil of the body.”* 
[Mr Ord adds, in his reprint, “ When this work was 
published, its author was not aware that those birds observed 
by navigators in almost every quarter of the globe, and known 
* British Zoology , vol. ii. p, 484. 
