Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/322

Rh season. Some of them appear as if they were almost constantly on the wing, for they follow the course of ships for many days together, and are never seen to alight on the water, either by day or night. Their food consists of small mollusca and Crustacea, and the oily particles which may be found floating on the surface of the sea; some of the species inhabiting high latitudes are the constant attendants on whalers, feasting on the fat of slaughtered whales with extreme voracity. Their flesh becomes, from the nature of their food, saturated, as it were, with oil; and when offended or alarmed many of them eject from their nostrils a quantity of fetid oil, as a defence. Foolish and groundless superstition, in former times, connected these birds with the production of tempests, and many silly names were given them in consequence.