104 
THE STORMY PETREL. 
their bodies and the action of the wind on their wings enable 
them to do this with ease. In calm weather, they perform the 
same manoeuvre, by keeping their wings just so much in 
action as to prevent their feet from sinking below the surface. 
According to BufFon, it is from this singular habit that the 
whole genus have obtained the name Petrel, from the 
Apostle Peter, who, as Scripture informs us, also walked on 
the water. 
As these birds often come up immediately under the 
stern, one can examine their form and plumage with nearly 
as much accuracy as if they were in the hand. They fly 
with the wings forming an almost straight, horizontal line 
with the body, the legs extended behind, and the feet partly 
seen stretching beyond the tail. Their common note of u weet , 
weet ” is scarcely louder than that of a young duck of a 
week old, and much resembling it. During the whole of a 
dark, wet, and boisterous night which I spent on deck, they 
flew about the after rigging, making a singular hoarse 
chattering, which in sound resembled the syllables patr&t tu 
cuk cuk , tu tu , laying the accent strongly on the second 
syllable tret. Now and then I conjectured that they alighted 
on the rigging, making then a lower, curring noise. 
Notwithstanding the superstitious fears of the seamen, 
who dreaded the vengeance of the survivors, I shot four- 
teen of these birds one calm day, in lat. 33°, eighty or 
ninety miles off the coast of Carolina, and had the boat 
lowered to pick them up. These I examined with consider- 
