1 88 Voyage of the Novara. 



eatables from on board. Every day, about noon, the vicinity of 

 the ship became animated, and towards one'o'clock, after the 

 crew had finished dinner, these lively creatures were close 

 behind, and even fought for the pieces of tow with which 

 the coppers had been cleansed. The boldest amongst them 

 was the Cape pigeon, which pounced, with the utmost avidity, 

 upon the dainty morsels thrown overboard, raising a loud 

 scream, swimming round its prey, diving for sinking fragments, 

 or snatching from each other those they had secured. Then 

 came the black and brown-spotted and white albatrosses. 

 As soon as one of these colossal birds appeared on the 

 scene of strife, the uproar of the screaming pigeons at once 

 became still; they kept themselves at a respectful distance 

 from the voracious albatross, which quietly consumed its lion's 

 share. In a few moments, yet greater numbers of these assem- 

 bled, of which the black ones {Pkoehetria fiiUginosa), like 

 the large petrels, are extremely shy, and rarely approach 

 the ship within gun-shot. The other large-sized petrels acted 

 similarly, the brown spectacled-petrel, so named from two sin- 

 gular-looking black rings round the eyes, being the most nu- 

 merous. Along with these were several small Mother Carey's 

 Chickens, and flights of other winged creatures swarming over 

 the sea. The darker the sky, the more agitated the sea, the 

 more actively do the Cape pigeons tumble and toss behind the 

 ship ; it appears that in rough stormy weather they see less dis- 

 tinctly and find food with difficulty, in consequence of which 

 they are in a famished state. Only under these circumstances. 



