Habits of various Sea-birds. 187 



those " that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in 

 great waters." 



On this passage from the American to the African coasts, 

 we were continually accompanied by our winged friends, the 

 sea-birds, which, notwithstanding the unkind treatment they 

 received at the hands of the zoological sportsmen, followed us 

 with the utmost pertinacity, probably attracted by the numerous 

 fragments of provisions thrown overboard. 



The Cape pigeons {Procellaria sp.), those prettily-marked 

 sea-birds, about the size of doves, the albatrosses, {Diomedea 

 sp.) the largest of the ocean feathered tribe, with their 

 quiet majestic flight, stormy petrels of all sorts and sizes, 

 from the smallest sw^allow to the largest of its kind ; all 

 these winged inhabitants of the sea*s surface followed the 

 frigate in motley groups, and seemed never to weary in 

 their active search for food. 



Sometimes they alighted, rested on the surface of the 

 water, and were left far behind ; but they collected again 

 with great rapidity as soon as anything eatable appeared, 

 and overtook the frigate in a swift flight from the remotest 

 point of the horizon. This singular attachment to ships very 

 probably arises from their being accustomed to follow whalers, 

 from which such a large quantity of garbage is thrown over- 

 board, very much aflected by these aerial parasites, whence 

 they learn to expect from all vessels their favourite food. 



They possess a remarkable capacity for remembering the 

 exact time when they are likely to receive a large quantity of 



