STORMY PETREL. 
167 
numbers, and in all weathers, contributing much, by 
their sprightly evolutions of wing, to enliven the scene, 
and affording me every day several hours of amuse- 
ment. It is indeed an interesting sight to observe 
these little birds in a gale, coursing over the waves, 
down the declivities, up the ascents of the foaming 
surf that threatens to burst over their heads, sweeping 
along the hollow troughs of the sea, as in a sheltered 
valley, and again mounting with the rising billow, and 
just above its surface, occasionally dropping its feet, 
which, striking the water, throws it up again with 
additional force, sometimes leaping, with both legs 
parallel, on the surface of the roughest waves for several 
yards at a time. Meanwhile it continues coursing 
from side to side of the ship’s wake, making excursions 
far and wide, to the right and to the left, now a 
great way ahead, and now shooting astern for several 
hundred yards, returning again to the ship as if she 
were all the while stationary, though perhaps running 
at the rate of ten knots an hour. But the most sin- 
gular peculiarity of this bird is its faculty of standing, 
and even running’, on the surface of the water, which it 
performs with apparent facility. When any greasy 
matter is thrown overboard, these birds instantly collect 
around it, and, facing to windward, with their long 
wings expanded, and their webbed feet patting the 
water, the lightness of their bodies, and the action 
of the wind on their wings, enable them to do this 
with ease. In calm weather they perform the same 
manoeuvre, by keeping their wings just so much in 
action as to prevent their feet from sinking below the 
surface. According to Buffbn, # it is from this singular 
habit that the whole genus have obtained the name 
Petrel, from the apostle Peter, who, as Scripture informs 
us, also walked on the water. 
As these birds often come up immediately under the 
stern, one can examine their form and plumage with 
nearly as much accuracy as if they were in the hand. 
* Buffon, tome xxiii, p. 299. 
