98 
AMERICAN STORMY PETREL. 
behind, and the feet partly seen stretching beyond the tail. Their 
common note of weet, weet^^ is scarcely louder than that of a 
young Duck of a week old, and much I'esembling it. During the 
whole of a dark, wet and boisterous night which I spent on deck, 
they flew about the after rigging, making a singular hoarse chat- 
tering, which in sound resembled the syllables patret tu cuk cuk tu 
tiii laying the accent strongly on the second syllable tret. Now 
and then I conjectured that they alighted on the rigging, making 
then a lower curring noise. 
Notwithstanding the superstitious fears of the seamen, who 
dreaded the vengeance of the survivors, I shot fourteen of these 
birds one calm day in lat. 33°, eighty or ninety miles off the coast 
of Cai'olina, and had the boat lowered to pick them up. These I 
examined with considerable attention, and found the most perfect 
specimens as follows ; 
Length six inches and three quarters, extent thirteen inches 
and a half ; bill black, five eighths of an inch long ; nasal tube turn- 
ed upwards, the upper mandible grooved thence, and overhanging 
the lower like that of a bird of prey ; head, back and lower pai'ts 
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; hind toe very small; the membrane of 
the foot is marked with a large oblong spot of straw yellow, and 
finely serrated along the edges ; eyes black ; length of the tarsus 
nearly one inch and a half. Male and female differing nothing in 
color. 
On opening these I found the first stomach large, containing 
numerous round semitransparent substances of an amber color, 
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 vegetable 
