5H 
The Hijlory of A N I M A L S, 
Procellaria. 
This is an extreamly Angular bird ; the bignefs of it is about that of our common 
water wag-tail: the head is large and depreffed ; the ears are broad and open j the eyes 
are very large; their iris is of a deep hazel, and they have a very piercing afped : the 
beak is fmall, {lender, and compreffed ; the noftrils ftand very prominent on it, and 
their openings are leparated by a membrane: the beak is bf-a dufky colour, and black 
at the tip. 
The head is of a deep and very glofly black on the crown, and of a fomewhat 
dulkier black on the temples: the neck and back are of the fame deep, glofly, and 
beautiful black with the head, but the rump is lefs glofly : the breaft, throat, and bel- 
ly are black alfo, but it is a lefs full colour, and lefs glofly than on the back. 
The tail feathers are twelve, all of an equal length, and black ; and the tail, though 
not fhort, does not exceed the tips of the wings, when they are clofed, they being 
very long : the lower feathers of the rump, which cover the bafes of the long feathers 
of the tail, are white, with black tips, fo that the lower part of the rump appears in a 
great meafure white. 
The wings are very long } the principal feathers of them are totally black, but the 
covering feathers of the fecond feries have fome white toward their tips. 
The legs are {hort and {lender; the thigh is naked, at leafl: half the way up : the 
feet are large ; the toes are but {lender, but they are connected by a fine thin mem¬ 
brane ; there is no hinder toe, but the claw in that part is fmall, and is connected im¬ 
mediately to the back of the foot: the whole foot is indeed of a very Angular ftruc- 
ture : the membrane which connects the toes, and forms the web, is black, and very 
thin : the middle toe is fhorteft, and has only two joints; the outer is longer, and has 
four: the interior has three, and is longer than either: the claws are blackifh, and 
nearly equal in length. 
This Angular bird has not been known till of late years; it is an inhabitant of the 
Northern Seas, where it {kirns along the furface of the waves with great rapidity. It 
has the knowledge of an approaching {form, and always, in that cafe, gets under co¬ 
vert of the {hips that are near : the failors, when they fee no other Agn of a ftorm, 
prepare for one on this Agnal, and they are not difappointed. Dampier and fome of 
our other voyagers have defcribed it under the name of Petrel; other writers have 
been little acquainted with it. It was flrfl: mentioned in the Stockholm Tranla&ions, 
under the name of Procellaria, or the Storm-bird $ the Swedes call it, Storminaders 
fogeleir. 
THE 
