THE STORMY PETREL, 
41 
sailors, whose illogical minds are unable to discriminate between 
cause and effect, and fancy that the Petrel, or Mother Carey’s 
Chicken, as they call the bird, is the being which, by the exer- 
cise of some magic art, calls the storm into existence. They 
even fancy that the Petrel never goes ashore nor rests ; and will 
tell you that it does not lay its egg in the ground, but holds it 
under one wing, and hatches it while engaged in flight To 
the vulgar mind, everything incomprehensible is fraught with 
terrors, and so the harmless, and even useful Petrel, is hated 
with strange virulence. 
Throughout the breeding season, the Petrel is indefatigable 
in search of food, and will follow ships for considerable dis- 
tances, in hopes of obtaining some of the offal that is thrown 
overboard by the cook. Even if a cupful of oil be emptied 
into the water, the Petrel will scoop it up in its bill, and take 
it home to its young. During the night it mostly remains with 
its offspring, feeding it, and making a curious grunting noise, 
something like the croaking of frogs. This noise is continued 
throughout the night, and those who have visited the great 
nesting places of the Petrel, unite in mentioning it as a loud 
and peculiar sound. The ordinary cry is low and short, some- 
thing like the quacking of a young duck. By day, however, 
the birds are silent, and only those who keep nightly watch 
on the ship’s deck, can have an opportunity of hearing their 
chattering cry. 
The burrow in which the young Petrel is hatched is extremely 
odoriferous, the oily food on which the bird lives having itself 
a very rancid and unsavoury scent; and in consequence of 
feeding upon this substance, both the habitation and the in- 
mates are extremely offensive to the nostrils. The young bird 
is at first very helpless, and remains in its excavated home 
until it is several weeks of age. One of these birds was seen 
on the Thames in the month of December, 1823, where it 
attracted some attention, its peculiar mode of pattering over 
the water causing it to be taken for a wounded land bird, and 
inducing many persons to go in vain pursuit of the supposed 
cripple. 
