[7] SEA BIRDS AS BAIT FOR CATCHING CODFISH. 317 



hauling their gear and proceed to "toll" up the birds. lu order to do 

 this pieces of liver are thrown out, which immediately entice the ever- 

 present petrels or Mother Carey chickens that gather in Hocks arouud 

 the floating morsels and dancing up and down upon the water, tear the 

 swimming particles into pieces small enough for them to swallow. If 

 the weather is clear the keen eye of the nearest hagdon quickly detects 

 this gathering of small birds near the boat, and thither he wends his way 

 to scatter the little Mother Carey chickens right and left by his audacious 

 aggression, while be swallows, with indescribable eagerness, the pieces 

 of floating liver, uttering, meanwhile, his harsh and disagreeable note. 

 Not many minutes elapse before other birds — hagdons, jaegers, and other 

 species, perhaps — may be seen coming from all points of the compass, and 

 in a short time a large flock collect about the boat. If the weather is 

 thick the programme is slightly varied. The birds are then attracted by 

 thefishermen imitating their cries, and also,perhaps,by their scenting the 

 oily liver floating on the waves. I am assured by an excellent authority — 

 Dr. Elliott Cones — that all the birds of this family are provided with 

 very imperfect organs of smell ; but, nevertheless, both the hag and the 

 Mother Carey chicken exhibit some peculiarities which so strongly resem- 

 ble those of a dog working up a scent that it may not be out of place to 

 call attention to the subject here. On many occasions, during the preva- 

 lence of a dense fog, when not a bird of any kind had been seen for 

 hours, I have thrown out, as an experiment, pieces of liver to ascertain 

 if any birds could be attracted to the side of the vessel. As the parti- 

 cles of liver floated away, going slowly astern of the schooner, only a 

 short time would pass before either a Mother Carey chicken or a hag, 

 generally the former, could be seen coming up from the leeward out of 

 the fog, flying backward and forward across the vessel's wake, seemingly 

 working up the scent until the floating pieces of liver were reached. If 

 the first bird to arrive should be a Mother Carej^ chicken, and the liver too 

 large for it to attack alone, which was generally the case, the petrel would 

 at once fly away, and in a few minutes three or four could be seen return- 

 ing. This suggests a question as to whether the petrel went to seek as- 

 sistance or not in order that he might share with his coadjutors the feast 

 which he could not well obtain unassisted ; but should the first one to 

 appear be a hag he does not seek companionship, but with a greedy 

 yell he pounces upon the pieces of liver and swallows them with the 

 voracity characteristic of the si)ecies, and no sooner has he devoured one 

 morsel than he is ofl on the wing seeking for more. However, it is gen- 

 erally the case that a flock of hagdons soon gather, whatever may be 

 the density of the fog, unless birds are very rare on the Bank or, per- 

 haps, rendered indiflercnt to food by a recent feast. 



Having made this seemingly necessary digression to explain the meth- 

 ods of "tolling up " and gathering the flocks of birds about the dory, I 

 shall now proceed to describe the modus operandi of their capture. 



The two men in a dory, one aft and the other forward, are each pro- 



