LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 89 



sooty shearwater could be easily recognized at any distance. AVe ex- 

 perienced no difficulty in tolling them up to the boat, where we could 

 study them at close range, by throwing overboard the oily livers of 

 what fish we had caught or any other greasy offal. It was remarkable 

 to see how quickly the}'- would gather ; even when none were in sight 

 for miles around us, they seemed to scent the presence of food and 

 would come from far and wide to gorge themselves on the feast we 

 had provided. Even in foggy weather they seemed to have some 

 means of locating us and would suddenly appear, as if by intuition, 

 when they could hardly have been guided by sight. They must have 

 some means of communicating with each other or indicating by their 

 movements w^here food is to be found. When a morsel of food is 

 discovered the bird plunges awkwardly down onto the water, striking 

 on its breast with a great splash and gulping down the savory morsel 

 with eager haste. 



Occasionally it plunges beneath the surface to catch a sinking bit 

 of flesh and often great squabbles take place between several birds, 

 struggling to secure the same pieces and making the water fly in 

 their greedy eagerness. It is not difficult to get them near enough to 

 photograph them and it is not necessary to shoot any for specimens 

 for they can be easily caught on baited hooks. They are hard to 

 kill, however, as they are very tenacious of life. They eject from 

 their mouths and nostrils, when caught, a great profusion of bad 

 smelling oily fluid, which soils the plumage and is very difficult to 

 remove. 



The sooty shearwater is known to the fishermen as the "black 

 hagdon," "hag," or "haglet." On the fishing grounds about the 

 Grand Bank off Newfoundland the shearwaters are very abundant 

 and were formerly caught, with hook and line, in enormous num- 

 bers to use for bait. According to Capt. J. W. Collins, the sooty 

 shearwater is much less abundant on the fishing banks than the 

 greater shearwater, which outnumbers it about 100 to 1. Capt. 

 Collins (1884) published, in the tenth annual report of the United 

 States Fish Commissioner, an exhaustive and very interesting ac- 

 count of the habits of the shearwaters and fulmar, part of which was 

 reprinted in The Osjit'ey and is well worth reading. He gives a full 

 account of the method of catching codfish, known as "shack-fishing," 

 in which the "hagdons" were largely used as bait prior to 1875, 

 and says that since that time "it has generally been found more 

 profitable to depend on other sources for a bait supply;" he also 

 describes the methods used in catching the shearwaters and pre- 

 paring them for bait. Referring to the social habits of these birds 

 he says: 



When the birds reach their destination in the spring, for a few days after 

 their arrival, they do not seem to malve any special effort for tlie pnrpose of 



