THE PETREL. 
239 
last hanging partly out of the mouth. We have 
noticed (vol. ii., p. 215,) the proportion of food con- 
sumed by a Cormorant, compared with the weight 
of its body, but its voracity is as nothing in compa- 
rison with that of the Nelly-bird, which appears, in 
the course of twenty-four hours, to dispose of nearly 
three times its own weight of food. 
The last genus of this tribe is that of the Petrels, 
two only of which are well known to us, as fre- 
quenters of our shores: the Fulmar, which is nearly 
as large as a Gull, and the Stormy Petrel, better 
known to sailors by the name of Mother Carey's 
Chickens, about the size, and in appearance not un- 
like the Swift, or largest Swallow. Their whole 
bodies seem to be filled and impregnated with oil, to 
such a degree, that in some of the most remote 
islands of the Hebrides, the inhabitants actually form 
them into candles, by merely passing a rush through 
the body and out at the beak, which is found to 
burn as well as if dipped in tallow or any other 
grease. So full are they of this oil, that the Ful- 
mar uses it as a weapon of defence, and, when taken, 
will squirt over the person who handles it, a strong 
jet of pure oily liquid. When shot, if it falls into 
the sea, a partial calm is created by the quantity 
ejected from its mouth. 
With their quantity of down, which supplies the 
islanders with warm bedding, — and fat, which is 
considered an efficacious remedy for wounds ; as is 
their oil, which is preserved in large bunches of long 
bladders, made of the gorge or stomach of the Solan 
Geese, — these birds become more valuable to the 
inhabitants than the poultry tribe to us. The poor 
