102 
THE STORMY PETREL. 
more than usually active in picking up various matters from 
the surface of the water. 
The Stormy Petrels, or Mother Carey’s Chickens, breed 
in great numbers on the rocky shores of the Bahama and 
the Bermuda Islands, and in some places on the coast of 
East Florida and Cuba. They breed in communities, like 
the bank swallows, making their nests in the holes and 
cavities of the rocks above the sea, returning to feed their 
young only during the night, with the superabundant oily 
food from their stomachs. At these times they may be 
heard making a continued cluttering sound, like frogs, 
during the whole night. In the day they are silent, and 
wander widely over the ocean. This easily accounts for the 
vast distance they are sometimes seen from land, even in 
the breeding season. The rapidity of their flight is at least 
equal to the fleetness of our swallows. Calculating this at 
the rate of one mile per minute, twelve hours would be 
sufficient to waft them a distance of seven hundred and 
twenty miles ; but it is probable that the far greater part 
confine themselves much nearer land during that interesting 
period. 
ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 
In the month of July, while on a voyage from New 
Orleans to New York, I saw few or none of these birds in 
the Gulf of Mexico, although our ship was detained there 
by calms for twenty days, and carried by currents as far 
