NATURE STUDY 
A MONTHLY BULLETIN OF THE 
Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences, 
Vol. I. NOVEMBER, 1900 . No. 6. 
Glimpses of European Birds. 
BY ANNIE V. BATCHELDER. 
When, on the 19th of May last, we sailed out of New York 
harbor, we kept an eye out for unfamiliar birds. That day we 
saw only gulls careening about the steamer on the watch for 
whatever dainty morsel, for a gull, might be cast overboard. 
The next day we were well out at sea and our first new bird was 
at hand. Besides the few gulls which still followed us there 
was a flock of smaller birds having a swallow-like appearance 
and flight. The sailors called them sea-swallows, also Mother 
Carey’s chickens. It was hard to believe that these frail look¬ 
ing creatures, scarcely larger than a sparrow, were in fact the 
Stormy or Wilson’s Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus) which breeds in 
the South Atlantic and ranges the ocean thence indefinitely 
northward. The birds followed us for three days. They fre¬ 
quently alighted on the steamer and some of them undoubtedly 
spent the nights on board in some hidden nook. Late one 
afternoon a coup’e of them chose for their resting-place a perch 
just beneath the awning on deck. They snuggled up to each 
other, tucked their heads under their wings and remained there 
