. An illustrated manual of British birds . hem by trailing long threads—slightly weighted at the end—fromthe taffrail; sailors, however, consider this proceeding unlucky,although they do not necessarily connect the appearance of thesebirds with foul weather. In captivity the Storm-Petrel has beenkept alive on oil for three weeks. By sea-faring folk, this and othermembers ot the genus are known as Mother Careys Chickens(perhaps a corruption of Mater cara); while their habit of paddlingalong the waves is supposed to have been the origin of the wordPetrel—after the Apostle Peter, who essayed to w
. An illustrated manual of British birds . hem by trailing long threads—slightly weighted at the end—fromthe taffrail; sailors, however, consider this proceeding unlucky,although they do not necessarily connect the appearance of thesebirds with foul weather. In captivity the Storm-Petrel has beenkept alive on oil for three weeks. By sea-faring folk, this and othermembers ot the genus are known as Mother Careys Chickens(perhaps a corruption of Mater cara); while their habit of paddlingalong the waves is supposed to have been the origin of the wordPetrel—after the Apostle Peter, who essayed to walk on the water. The adult has the upper parts black, except the tail-coverts whichare white at their bases, while the edges of the wing-coverts are slightlyedged with white; under surface sooty-black, sides of vent white ;bill, legs and feet black. Length 6 in.; wing 46 in. The youngbird is rather browner, and shows little or no white on the wing-coverts or vent. Mr. J. H. Gurney jun. has an albino example. 729 ^-,. ^V WILSONS PETREL. OCEANITES OCEANICUS (Kuhl). This remarkably long-legged Petrel was noticed and figured asProcellaria pelagica by Wilson (Am. Orn. vii. p. 90, pi. Ix, fig. 6),under the impression that it was identical with the bird just described,but the earliest scientific description of it was given by Kuhl in 1820,In 1824 Bonaparte published a memoir on this and three more species,with the distinctive characters, measurements, and figures of each;and, in ignorance of Kuhls name, proposed to call this bird Procel-laria wilsoni, in honour of the distinguished ornithologist, whosename can, however, only be handed down to posterity in the trivialappellation. In his memoir Bonaparte says, I have never learntthat it has been seen on the coasts of Europe. I killed one, thathad probably strayed, near the Azores ; and this appears to bethe first printed notice of the occurrence of Wilsons Petrel on theEuropean side of the Atlantic. As regards the
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