OCEANIA WOOD 381 



side of the wings are of a light brown, the belly and underside of 

 the wings white; the tail feathers are also white, but tipped with 

 brown. These birds are fuller of feathers than any we had hitherto 

 seen ; such care has nature taken to clothe them suitable to the climate 

 in which they live," And the foregoing description has not since 

 the days of Cook been much improved upon. 



Probably Captain Cook's "blue peterels" were of the genus 

 Prion — the small dove petrels, whose upper surface is ashy blue, 

 with white below. They are only about 12 inches long, with a jet- 

 black, pyramidal band stretching from one leg to the other across 

 the rump, which shows very plainly during flight. 



The "Antartic peterel" may be that allied species. Prion desol- 

 atus. They do not attend ships, being suspicious of man and all 

 his works, but follow the whale and feed upon not the crumbs but 

 the more substantial fragments that fall from his ample maw. 

 Hence their vulgar name of whale bird. I have never seen this spe- 

 cies alive, but they are said to be nocturnal in their habits. The 

 " pintado " is more certainly the pretty little cape petrel — Daption 

 capensis, or cape pigeon, so called from its superficial resemblance 

 to a pigeon, with head spotted with black and a pure white 

 belly. This small petrel, Avell known to travelers in the South 

 Pacific, eagerly feeds on scraps thrown from vessels, and even dives 

 after them, like a duck. If caught, Daption, like others of his kind, 

 tries to defend himself by ejecting an offensive fluid at and over his 

 captor. Although essentially an Antarctic bird, it is occasionally 

 seen as far north as Ceylon and California. 



Although Captain Cook did not find a northwest passage, even 

 with the aid of his good ships Resolution, of 462 tons, and Discovery, 

 300 tons, yet he made for his Government many other discoveries 

 that were, perhaps, of greater value. 



It may with truth be claimed that the traveler Avho first saw and 

 described the famous constellation, the Southern Cross, was an 

 American. When Americo Vespucci, on his first voyage, saw the 

 constellation, he wrote in triumph that he had beheld the Cross — 

 and Dante's " four stars." A friend has drawn my attention to the 

 poet's description : 



To the right I turned and fixed my mind 



On the other pole attentive, where I saw 



Four stars ne'er seen before save by the ken 



Of our first parents. 



Heaven of their ray seemed joyous. 



O, thou northern site, bereft 



Indeed, and widowed, since of these deprived." 



This quotation is from Canto I, of the " Purgatorio," in Cary's 

 translation. 



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