284 
The Animal-Lore of SKaJcspeare s Time . 
The Stormy Petrel, or Mother Cary’s Chicken, is 
mentioned by one of Pnrchas’s pilgrims 
under the appropriate name of sea-stamper. 
We read 
Petrel. 
ie The calcamar are as bigge as turtle-doves, or pigeons; the men 
of the countrie say, that they lay their egges in the sea, and there 
they hatch, and breed their young; they flie not, but with their wings 
and feet they swimme very swiftly, and they foreshow great calmes 
and showres, and in calme weather they are so many along the 
shippes that the mariners cannot tell what to doe, they are even 
the very spite it selfe, and melancholy. ” ( Purchas , vol. iv. p. 1317.) 
This bird, so dreaded by superstitious sailors, flies close 
to the surface of the waves, and assists itself in its progress 
by means of its webbed feet. This manner of skimming 
along gives it the appearance of treading on the water, 
whence the bird has obtained the name of petrel, in 
allusion to Saint Peter. 
The Cormorant was found in the fens, as well as on 
the coast of Britain, if we may credit Drayton, 
who mentions it in that part of his work 
which relates to Lincolnshire:— 
Cormorant. 
“ The cormorant then comes, by his devouring kind, 
Which flying o’er the fen, immediately doth find 
The fleet best stor’d of fish, when from his wings at full. 
As though he shot himself into the thicken’d skull, 
He under water goes, and so the shoal pursues, 
Which into creeks do fly, when quickly he doth chose 
The fin that likes him best, and rising, flying feeds.” 
( Polyolbion , song xxv.) 
This bird was often trained to catch fish to afford 
amusement, and Mr. Darting has given full particulars of 
the fondness of James I. for this sport. 
Olaus Magnus gives an account, in his work on Scan¬ 
dinavia (p. 199), of sea-crows or cormorants:— 
“ There is a kind of water-crows, or called eel-rooks. These birds 
are extreme black, except their breasts and bellies ; for they are all ash- 
