PROCELLARIA, the petrel, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order An sere's. Generic character : bill strait, but hooked at the end ; nostrils generally contained in one tube, at the base of the bill ; legs naked a little above the knee ; back toe little more than a spur. There are twenty-three species, of which the following are the principal.
P. gigantea, or the giant petrel, is more than three fest-loam, rind about se.
ven wide. These birds are often seen sailing just above the water without mov ing their wings for a long time together, and, being particularly alert on the ap proach of storms, often fill the mariner with apprehension and alarm. They abound most in southern latitudes, and though their principal food is fish, de vonr also the putrid carcases of seals and whales.
P. capensis, or the pintado petrel, abounds about the coasts of the Cape of Good Hope. These birds are about the size of the kittiwake gull, and are often observed in such numbers that many hundreds have been taken in one night. They are often taken with a rod and line by a hook baited with lard. They fre quently discharge oil from their nostrils on those who hold them, spurting it in their faces with great violence.
P. glacialis, or the fulmar petrel, weighs nearly a pound and a half, and is found in the northern coasts of this island, and thence even beyond Iceland and Greenland, where the natives use it for food, though•its flesh is highly offen sive to those not used to it. The fat is burnt in their lamps. These birds sub sist chiefly on fish, but often banquet on the carcases of whales, particularly the fat parts, which they afterwards eject from their stomachs into the mouths of their young. They often spurt it in the faces
of their enemies, and exhibit indeed no other mode of resistance. They are stat ed to be so amazingly fat, that, on being passed through the hands with great compression, the fat flows off like oil.
P. puffinus, or the shear water petrel, is smaller than the last. These birds are found in vast numbers in the Orkneys, where they are highly valued for their feathers as well as flesh, They are in some places salted and barrelled, especi ally in the Isle of Man. In Denmark they sometimes reside in rabbit borrows. See Ayes, Plate XII. fig. 5.
P. pelagica, or the stormy petrel, is of the size of a swallow, and rarely seen but at sea; and in tempestuous weather, num bers are observed frequently following, as if for shelter, in the wakes of vessels. They dive sometimes for half an hour to gether, and live principally upon fish, hut will eat a variety of offal thrown from ships. In the Ferro Islands they are so astonishingly fat, that the natives are stat ed to use them as candles after drawing a wick through their bodies. These are the birds so well known to seamen by the name of" Mother Carey's Chick ens ;" they are the smallest species of the genus, and are common on the sea coast of the United States. See Ayes, Plate XII. fig. 6.