He saw the stormy petrels. They flew about the ship almost every day.
They liked to eat the scraps the cook threw overboard.
[Illustration: THE STORMY PETREL.]
The petrels are sooty black. Their feet are partly webbed.
They sit and float upon the water. They run about over the water. In
stormy weather they fly through the dashing foam.
Bobby's mamma told him many things about the stormy petrel. She told
him how the stormy petrel flies far, far away from land. His home is
on the sea. He can fly all day long and not be tired.
The stormy petrel hardly ever goes on land except to lay her eggs. Her
nest is in a hole in some high cliff by the sea. She hatches one
little bird. It looks like a ball of fluff. The nest smells very oily.
The stormy petrel is very oily, like all sea birds. He is so full of
oil that the people of the Faroe Islands sometimes use him for a lamp.
They take a dead petrel and run a wick through him. Then they set him
on end and light the wick and he gives a very good light indeed!