24 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



member of the petrel family, all of which have such a disagreeable 

 flavor that neither their flesh nor eggs are edible. It seems to me far 

 more probable that it was allied to the auks {Alcidw), many of which 

 burrow in the ground and lay white, edible eggs. The northern auks 

 also have edible flesh and often a strong hooked bill. 



But no existing species breeds so far south, nor do they breed in 

 winter. The cahow may have spent the summer in the southern hemis- 

 phere, but possibly it was an arctic bird that produced a southern brood 

 in winter. Or it may have been a localized pelagic species, coming to 

 the laiid only for breeding purposes. 



The following graphic account of the bird and its habits was 

 written by Mr, W. Strachy, one of the party of 150 persons who were 

 wrecked with Sir George Somers in the 'Sea Venture,' July, 1609: 



"A kinde of webbe-footed Fowle there is, of the bignesse of an English 

 greene Plover, or Sea-Meawe, which all the Summer we saw not, and in the 

 darkest nights of November and December (for in the night they onely feed) 

 they would come forth, but not flye farre from home, and hovering in the ayre, 

 and over the Sea, made a strange hollow and harsh howling. They call it of 

 the cry which it maketh, a Cohow. Their colour is inclining to Kusset, with 

 white bellies, as are likewise the long feathers of their wings. Russet and 

 White, these gather themselves together and breed in those Hands which are 

 high, and so farre alone into the Sea, that the Wilde Hogges cannot swimme 

 over them, and there in the ground they have their Burrowes, like Conyes in a 

 Warren, and so brought in the loose Mould, though not so deepe; which Birds 

 with a light bough in a darke night (as in our Lowbelling) wee caught, I have 

 beene at the taking of three hundred in an houre, and wee might have laden 

 our Boates. Our men found a prettie way to take them, which was by standing 

 on the Rockes or Sands by the Sea-side, and hollowing, laughing, and making 

 the strangest outcry that possibly they could; with the noyse whereof the 

 Birds would come flocking to that place, and settle upon the very armes and 

 head of him that so cryed, and still creepe neerer and neerer, answering the 

 noyse themselves; by which our men would weigh them with their hand, and 

 which weighed heaviest they took for the best and let the others alone, and so 

 our men would take twentie dozen in two houres of the chiefest of them; and 

 they were a good and well relished Fowle, fat and full as a Partridge. In 

 January wee had great store of their Egges, which are as great as an Hennes 

 Egge, and so fashioned and white shelled and have no difference in yolke nor 

 white from an Hennes Egge. There are thousands of these Birds, and two 

 or three Hands full of their Burrowes^ whether at any time (in two houres 

 warning) wee could send our Cockboat, and bring home as many as would serve 

 the whole Company: which Birds for their blindnesse (for they see weakly in 

 the day) and for their cry and whooting, wee called the Sea Owle; they will 

 bite cruelly with their crooked Bills." 



The following description is taken from 'The Narrative' (1610), 

 by Silvanus Jourdain, who was also one of Somers's party: 



"Another Sea fowle there is that lyeth in little holes in the ground, like 

 unto Coney holes, and are in great numbers exceedingly good meate, very fat 

 and sweet (those we had in the winter and their eggs are white, and of that 



