Petrel
a popular name for any individual of the family Procellariidæ, small oceanic birds of dusky plumage, nocturnal in habit, widely distributed, but most abundant in the Southern Hemisphere. They are considered by sailors as the harbingers of stormy weather.
Many of them nidificate in holes and the majority lay but one egg, usually white.
Estrelata hesitata, the capped petrel whose habitat is the West Indian Islands, has been met with in Hungary.
Procellaria (Thalassidroma) pelagica is Mother Carey's chicken, or the storm petrel; Cymochorea leucorrhoa is the fork-tailed, or Leach's petrel; and Oceanites oceanicus is Wilson's petrel.