Mother Carey's chicken

I am never tired of the calms, and I enjoy a stiff gale like a Mother Carey’s chicken, so long as I can be on deck or in the captain’s cabin. 

From Letters from the Cape by Lady Lucie Duff Gordon

You don’t want me to take in sail surely with this wind, you old Mother Carey’s chicken?

From Picked up at Sea The Gold Miners of Minturne Creek by John C. (John Conroy) Hutcheson

There is another interesting thing about Mother Carey's chicken, and that is, that he is also called petrel, from the Italian 'Petrello,' or Little Peter.

From Storyology Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore by Benjamin Taylor

We had him, now on our weather bow, and now crossing our course, and, once in a while, in our wake, as if he had been a Mother Carey's chicken looking for our crumbs.

From The Water-Witch or, the Skimmer of the Seas by James Fenimore Cooper

“Here’s a Mother Carey’s chicken come aboard!” cried Sam Weeks, making for the poor tired thing to catch it.

From Afloat at Last A Sailor Boy's Log of his Life at Sea by William Heysham Overend