THE OSPEEY. 



51 



"banks." All these 

 birds are found, to 

 be sure, far from 

 land; yet they are 

 just as abundant 

 a dozen miles off 

 stjme projecting 

 point as a hundred 

 miles further out. 

 For years pa.st I 

 have had two such 

 places of access. 

 One is Chatham, 

 Mass., at the elbow 

 of Cape Cod: the 

 other is Cape Sable, 

 Nova Scotia. At 

 these places fleets 

 of sail boats f>fo 

 for fish well off 

 shore each favor- 

 able morning-, re- 

 turninff at night. 

 The abundance of 

 ocean birds in these 



localities is due to the fact that they follow the 

 migrations of fish, feeding upon small fry or 

 the leavings of whales and other marine 

 creatures. One may sail over vast tracts of 

 ocean and see only scattering birds, while on 

 the fishing grounds there niaj- be, and often are, 

 hundreds and even thousands. Because the 

 waters of Cape Cud and Cape Sable swarm with 

 fish, they also abound in bird-life. 



B'roni either of these points let one accompany 

 a fisherman some day in sultry August. If the 

 desire is to meet Shearwaters in abundance, 

 Chatham is the place; if Jaegers and Phalar- 

 opes are wished for. Cape Sable is better— 

 though all these birds occur in either place. 

 The distance from land at which they are found 

 varies from day to day, apparently according to 

 the location of fish or other bait. Sometimes 

 few can be found inside of a twenty mile limit, 

 and again they are quite close in. t)ne morn- 



"Two Kinds of Shearwaters.' 



ing in August, 1807, I found no birds nearer 

 than eight miles oft' Chatham. But, returning 



Fleets of Sail Boats Go for Fish,' 



in the afternoon, manyShearwaters and Petre's 

 were flying only half a mile out, diving' eagerly 

 at schools of fish that agitated the water. 



Two kinds of Shearwater are very common 

 off this coast in summer, the Greater (Puffiniis 

 gravis) and the Sooty (/-'. fiiligiiiosus). The 

 former is the more abundant, but the other is 

 very common, and on some days seems to out- 

 number the Greater. The waters off Chatham 

 are the one known resort of the recently dis- 

 covered Cory's Shearwater. Mr, C. B. Cory 

 records the first specimens known to science 

 from this locality in the summer of 1881. On 

 August 2, 1883, I secured two single birds of 

 this species, and shot down another that flut- 

 tered off as I was about to pick it up, my gun 

 being empty. All these birds are called "Hags" 

 or "Haglets" by the fishermen. Their flight is 

 peculiar, the wings being held straight out. 

 Usually thej' wander sing-ly, searching for food. 

 But when a school of 

 fish is discovered the)' 

 pour in from far 

 and near, flapping 

 about on the water, div- 

 ing, squabbling, grunt- 

 ing. On a 'jalui day 

 they rise from the 

 water with difficulty 

 always facing the 

 wind; but, once 

 awing, their flight is 

 g-raceful, swift and 

 powerful. They fol- 

 low the fishermen 

 persistently, and no 

 collector without a gun 

 need want for speci- 

 mens, for they take the 

 hook nearly as well as 

 codfish. I have hauled 

 them in as fast as I 

 could throw a small 

 line baited with cod- 

 liver, while the fisher- 

 men rivaled me with the boat hook. This was 

 when we had baited up a large flock around us. 



