LIFE HtSTOTimS OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 29 



. The habit thnt this bird has, in connuon with most of tlie petrels, of dis- 

 gorging semidigpsted food when disturbed or annoyed is very commonly seen in 

 putting it to tiight after feeding. It is interesting to notice how small an amount 

 of such ballast removed by vomiting seems to turn the scale, for it is quite in- 

 significant when compared with what the stomach actually contains; yet the 

 bird seems so utterly unable to i-un or to rise from the ice until relieved, that, 

 no mutter how closely it is pressed, it will come to a dead stop in order to dis- 

 encuinl)er itself by a number of voluntary efforts before making a serious effort 

 to rise. 



The giant petrel lives on any carrion that it is able to discover, and it can 

 never be at a loss during the Antarctic sununer for a plentiful supply of dead 

 seals and penguins. I know not whether in the Macquarie and Auckland Islands 

 and elsewhere it is also mainly a carrion feeder, but I can answer for this in 

 the Antarctic. One has but to kill a seal on the shore in summer and visit the 

 blubber refuse day by day to realize how quickly such food attracts the birds 

 who are looking for it. None but the carrion feeders come to it; one sees no 

 albatross, no snow, antarctic, or Wilson's petrel, though all must often scent it ; 

 l)ut the giant petrel and the skuas come in constantly increasing numbers. 



Dr. J. H. Kidder (1875) draws a realistic, though not an attractive, 

 picture of these gluttonous birds in the following words : 



I found the adult birds in considerable numbers feeding on the carcass of 

 the sea elephant, December 14. With their liuge whitish beaks, lighter-colored 

 heads (then covered with clotted blood), and disordered dun plumage, they re- 

 minded me strongly of vultures. Like vultures, also, they had so cranmied 

 tlieni.^elves that they were unable to rise from the ground, although it was 

 sufiiciently rocky and irregular for them to do so with ease under ordinary 

 circumstances. " They waddled and stumbled to the sea, swam away, and did 

 not rise into the air until half an hour or more of digestion, and perhaps of 

 vomiting, had made it possible. I shot two on this occasion ; but one succeeded 

 in getting into the water WMth a broken wing. The individual secured vomited 

 copiously, as soon as wounded, an innnense mass of undigested blood, fat, and 

 intestines. 



Buller (1888) says of a captive bird: 



Its capacity for swallowing was surprising, and it gorged its crop with fresh 

 meat until it could hold no more ; then it stretched its neck on the ground and 

 worked it violently in its efforts to accommodate another piece. Curiously 

 enough, it would not touch fish of any kind. Although, by way of experiment, 

 starved for several days, it still (jbstinateiy declined the fish offered it. When, 

 however, its mnte died and had been skinned, the survivor regaled itself freely 

 on the carcass till it became decomposed. 



Behamor. — Buller (1888) gives the best account of the flight of 

 this fulmar, which I quote in full : 



Their power of wing is something marvelous. For hours together they keep 

 up their rapid sailing movement without ever resting or descending to the 

 water for a moment. It is very interesting to watch them in this tireless flight 

 and to observe how completely they have their wings under control. They 

 approach the steamer at a swift rate with a slow flapping movement of the 

 wings, and then make a wide circuit, keeping them perfectly rigid, but shifting 

 the balance of the body in such a way as to make alternately one wing and then 

 .the other incline upwards or downwards, thus altering the plane without the 



