to the right and to the left, now a great way a-head, and now shooting astern for several hundred yards, returning again to the ship as if she were all the while stationary, though perhaps running at the rate of ten knots an hour. But the most singular peculiarity of this bird is its faculty of standing, and even running on the surface of the water, which it performs with apparent facility. When any greasy substance is thrown over-board, these birds instantly collect around it, and, facing to windward, with their long wings expanded, and their webbed feet patting the water, the lightness of their bodies, and the action of the wind on their wings, enable them to do this with ease. In calm weather they perform the same manœuvre, by keeping their wings just so much in action, as to prevent their feet from sinking below the surface."[1]
Wilson appears to have had no knowledge of the domestic economy of this bird, but Audubon informs us that it breeds on some small islands near the southern extremity of Nova Scotia, formed of sand and light earth, scantily covered with grass. Thither the birds resort in great numbers about the beginning of June, and form burrows about two feet deep, in the bottom of which each female lays a single white egg, as large as that of a pigeon, but more oblong. A few pieces of dried grass form the only apology for a nest. The young are able to follow their parents in their seaward flights by the beginning of August.
The present species appears to affect the American more than the European side of the Atlantic
- ↑ Wilson's Amer. Ornith. (Edin. 1831), ill. 166.
