. Natural history. Zoology. 258 A VES—ORDER PROCELLARIIFORMES. mans shearwater, is resident and breeds on St. Kilda, as well as in other places in the west of Europe. Like all other members of their family, the shearwaters are birds of rapid flight, and may be seen in The Shearwaters iiocks far out at sea, apparently revelling in the rough and Fulmars.— weather. Family The fulmar-petrels (sub-family Fulmarince) are also very Puffinida. widely distributed over all the oceans, and some of them are as large as gulls, one species, Ossifraga gigantm, from the Southern Seas, being as large as some o
. Natural history. Zoology. 258 A VES—ORDER PROCELLARIIFORMES. mans shearwater, is resident and breeds on St. Kilda, as well as in other places in the west of Europe. Like all other members of their family, the shearwaters are birds of rapid flight, and may be seen in The Shearwaters iiocks far out at sea, apparently revelling in the rough and Fulmars.— weather. Family The fulmar-petrels (sub-family Fulmarince) are also very Puffinida. widely distributed over all the oceans, and some of them are as large as gulls, one species, Ossifraga gigantm, from the Southern Seas, being as large as some of the albatroses. The common fulmar - petrel (Fulmarus glacialis) is a well-known inhabitant of the seas of Arctic Europe, and nests on St. Kilda and the Shetland Islands. The diving-petrels {PehcanokUdce) are curious little birds from the Southern Seas, which have much the appearance of the little auk {Mergulus alh)ol the Northern Hemisphere. Mr. Eaton says that, like that species, the diving- petrels have a hurried flight, and dive into the sea without any interruption of the action of their wings; both also emerge from beneath the surface fly- ing, and they both swim with their tails rather deep in the water. This resemblance, he says, does not extend to other particulars of their habits. The little auk, when breeding, usually flies and fishes in small flocks of six or a dozen birds, and nests in communities of considerable size, which are ex- ceedingly noisy. Diving-petrels, on the other hand, are more domestic in their mode of living, fishiiig and flying for the most part in pairs or alone, and nest .sporadically. Their burrows are about as small in diameter as the holes of bank martins or kingfisiiers. Tlicy are made in dry banks and slopes where the ground is easily penetrable, and terminate in an enlarged chamber, on the flour of which the egg is deposited. There is no specially constructed nest. Some of the burrows are branched, but the branches are without termina
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