THE STORMY PETREL. 
101 
but to the end of the claws measures sometimes more than 
six feet. The bill is four inches and a quarter long ; as far 
as the bend black, but from thence to the base, reddish- 
yellow; round the base quite to the eye, covered with a 
flesh-coloured cere. 
The plumage deep scarlet in the adult, except the quills, 
wnich are black. From the base of the thigh to the claws, 
measures thirty-two inches, of which the feathered part 
takes up no more than three. 
WILSON'S STOEMY PETEEL. 
( Thalasidroma Wilsonii.') 
We commence our series of the Palmipedes , or Web- 
Footed birds, with this, which is called Wilson's Stormy 
Petrel, in honour of Alexander Wilson, the celebrated his- 
torian of American birds. It is on his authority that we 
give the following description and illustrative anecdotes : — 
The Stormy Petrel, the least of the whole twenty-four 
species of its tribe enumerated by ornithologists, and the 
smallest of all palmated fowls, is found over the whole 
Atlantic Ocean, from Europe to North America, at all 
distances from land, and in all weathers, but is particularly 
numerous near vessels, immediately preceding and during a 
gale, when flocks of them crowd in her wake, seeming then 
