80 LITTLE FOLKS 
A DROLL CANDLE. 
Did you ever see a bird used as a candle? I don't mean a 
candle stick, but a regular candle, and burn, and burn, till nothing 
was left of him but his toes. 
You never heard of such a thing? — perhaps not, but it's often 
done in the Feroe Islands, and here's a picture of the unfortunate 
little fellow. 
He's called a Petrel, and a curious creature he is. He fairly 
lives in the sea. He flies long distances over it, and is never so 
happy as in the wildest storms. Then he sails around, and adds 
his cry to the roaring of the sea, half running and half flying over 
the highest waves, and seeming to enjoy it as much as you boys 
enjoy a wild frolic in the snow. Sailors, who are full of supersti- 
tions, you know, regard the innocent little fellow as a bad omen, 
and are sure of bad luck if he gets tired and rests on their ship. 
He wears a black coat, too, and that's another reason why sailors 
don't like him. As though black wasn't as harmless a color as 
blue! They call him " Mother Carey's chicken." 
He has a droll way of sleeping. He just makes himself into 
a little feather boat, sits on the water with his head under his wing, 
as safe as your canary bird on his perch, and is tossed about at the 
mercy of the winds and waves — a funny little feather ball. 
He can't sink, and he can't get wet, for his feathers are so 
close together and so oily, that water can't get through them. 
Sailors ought to like him, for he is not fond of the land, and is 
as awkward a walker on shore, as sailors themselves. Indeed, he 
scarcely ever comes on shore. 
Mamma Petrel comes on shore to make her nest, and a droll 
little home she makes, if she can't find a cozy nook in a rock. 
Hunting up a sandy beach, she digs a little cave about a foot deep, 
and there she lays her egg, and brings up her little fuzzy, white 
baby. 
She spends the whole day off on the ocean, and only comes 
home at night to feed the baby, which seems too bad of the little 
mother. 
Another odd thing about this sea bird, it has no hind toe. 
