The head and all the upper part of the body are of a sooty blackness; and the under part and inner coverts of the wings white. These birds are found in the Isle of Man and the Scilly Isles. In February they take a short possession of the rabbit burrows, and then disappear till April; they lay one egg, and in a short time the young are fit to be taken. They are then salted and barrelled. During the day they keep at sea fishing, and towards evening return to their young, whom they feed by discharging the contents of the stomach into their mouths.

Is about the size of a house swallow. The general colour of the plumage is black, except about the rump, which is white. Stormy Petrels have been seen in flocks which have been estimated to contain at least a hundred and fifty millions of them. They are always to be found on the shores of Britain, and seem to be diffused all over the world. They sometimes hover over the water like swallows, and sometimes appear to run on the top of it: they are also excellent divers. It skims along the hollows of

*Wilson supposed the American Stormy Petrel to be the same as that of Europe, but Charles Bonaparte has shown that it is a distinct species. It breeds in great numbers on the shores of the Bahama and Bermuda Isles, and on the Coast of East Florida and Cuba. This author enumerates four species of the Stormy Petrel.

the waves, and through the spray upon their tops, at the astonishing rate of sixty miles in an hour. They are very clamorous, and are called by the sailors Mother Cary's Chickens, who observe they never settle or sit upon the water but when stormy weather is to be expected. They are found in most parts of the world; and in the Feroe islands the inhabitants draw a wick through the body of the bird, from the mouth to the rump, which serves them as a candle, being fed by the vast proportion of oil which this little animal contains. This oil it is supposed to collect from the ocean by means of the feathers on its breast.

There are about twenty species of foreign birds of this kind. In the high southern latitudes one is found which is the size of a goose, and on that account called the GIANT PETREL. The upper parts of its plumage are pale brown, mottled with dusky white; the under parts are white. There is another species in Norfolk Island, which burrows in the sand like a rabbit.

AND all its varieties, is well known to most readers. It is seen with slow-sailing flight hovering over rivers, to prey upon the smaller kinds of fish: it is seen following the

ploughman in fallow fields to pick up insects; and when living animal food is not to be found, it has even been known to eat carrion, and whatever else offers of the kind.

Of the Gull there are about nineteen species. The largest with which we are acquainted is the BLACK AND WHITE OF BLACK-BACKED GULL. It generally weighs upwards of four pounds, and is twenty-five or twenty-six inches from the point of the bill to the end of the tail; and from the tip of each wing, when extended, five feet and several inches. The bill appears compressed sideways, being more than three inches long, and hooked towards the end, like the rest of this kind, of a sort of orange colour; the nostrils are of an oblong form; the mouth is wide, with a long tongue and very open gullet. The irides of the eyes are of a delightful red. The wings and the middle of the back are black; only the tips of the covert and quill feathers are white. The head, breast, tail, and other parts of the body, are likewise white. The tail is near six inches long, the legs and feet are flesh-coloured, and the claws black. There are about twenty varieties of this tribe, which are all distinguished by an angular knob on the chap.

Gulls are found in great plenty in every place; but it is chiefly round the rockiest shores that they are seen in the greatest abundance: it is there that the Gull breeds and brings up its young; it is there that millions of them are heard screaming with discordant notes for months together.

The SKUA GULL is the size of a raven. The upper parts of the head, neck, back, and wings, are deep brown; the under parts a pale rusty ash colour. The legs are black, rough, and warty, and the talons very strong and hooked. It is mostly a native of the North, though often found in England. It is a most formidable bird, as it not only preys upon fish, but upon all the smaller waterfowl, and even on young lambs. It has the fierceness of the eagle in defend

ing its young; and when the inhabitants of the Faro isles attack its nest, they hold a knife over their heads, on which the Skua will transfix itself in its fall on the invaders. On the rocky island of Foula, one of the Shetland isles, it is a privileged bird, as it is said to, defend the flocks from the eagle, which it pursues and beats off with great fury whenever he presumes to visit the island.

The WAGEL GULL has its whole plumage composed of a mixed brown ash colour and white. It weighs about three pounds.

The HERRING GULL resembles the black-backed in every thing but size, and that the plumage on the back and wings is more inclined to ash colour than black; it weighs thirty ounces. The GLAUCOUS GULL, or Burgomaster, which inhabits Norway, &c. is rather larger than the Herring Gull, but resembles it in most other respects. The SILVERY GULL is the same size as the Herring Gull, and not much different in plumage and manners.

The TARRACK and the KITTIWAKE GULLS also so nearly resemble each other, that some authors affirm the latter to be only the Tarrack in a state of perfection. The head, neck, belly, and tail of the Kittiwake are of a snowy whiteness; the back and wings are gray; and both species have behind each ear a dark spot: both species are about the same size, viz. fourteen inches; and the Tarrack weighs seven ounces. Of the ARCTIC GULL the male has the top of the head black; the back, wings, and tail dusky; the rest of the body white: the female is entirely brown. It has been called the parasite, from its habits of pursuing the lesser Gulls till they drop their ordure through fear, which this filthy animal catches and devours before it drops into

the water.

The COMMON GULL is seventeen inches long, and weighs one pound. The bill is yellow; the back and wings a pale

gray; and the head and rest of the body white. The WINTER GULL is also very common in all these parts of Europe. The top of the head is white, marked with oblong dusky spots; the back and wings ash colour, marked with dusky brown.

The jelly-like substance known by the name of star-shot or star-jelly, owes its origin to some of these birds, being nothing but the half-digested remains of earthworms, on which they feed, and often discharge from their stomachs.

The PEWIT GULL, or BLACK-CAP, is so called from the head and throat being of a dark or black colour. The RED LEGGED GULL, the BROWN-HEADED GULL, the LAUGHING GULL,* which only differs from the others in having the legs black instead of red, are possibly only varieties of the same species. They are in length from fifteen to eighteen inches. The back and wings of these birds are in general ash colour, and the rest of the body white. The young birds of these species are thought by some to be good eating.

The GUAT GULL, which is found on the borders of the Caspian Sea, though distinguished by a black head, is quite a different species from the black-cap, as it equals in size the Barnacle goose, and weighs between two and three pounds: its voice too is as hoarse as that of a raven.

The Gull genus, like all other rapacious birds, lay but few eggs; and hence, in many places, their number is daily seen to diminish. Most of the kind are fishy tasted, with black stringy flesh; and of these, the poor inhabitants of the northern British islands make their wretched banquets. They have been long used to no other food; and even salted Gull can be relished by those who know no better.

*This bird, called the Black-headed Gull in America, appears in New Jersey in the latter part of April. They breed in marshes, and live on worms, insects and animal substances.-Wilson.