CAPE PIGEONS 



The so-called Cape pigeon (Pi-tn-Ua rajii-nsis) is a familiar, Antarctic petrel, famous in the literature 

 of the sea. It finds its northernmost breeding grounds at South Georgia, but it migrates as far as the 

 tropics. It is a strong, rather stiff flyer, a very buoyant swimmer, highly gregarious in its feeding habits, 

 and one of the most voracious, noisy, and quarrelsome of sea birds. It is known also by the names 

 "speckled haglet" and "pintado petrel," but Cape pigeon is the best vernacular name, for, when it settles 

 on the water and preens its black-and-white plumage, it looks for all the world like a true pigeon out of its 

 element. 



The species is o.xceedingly variable in its color pattern, the white area on the backs of some birds 

 being extensive and almost immaculate, while others are heavily speckled with black. This is partly 

 owing to individual differences but still more to the effects of abrasion, for the black tips of the new 

 feathers, acquired during the Antarctic winter, gradually wear away and leave the upper surface prevail- 

 ingly white before the new moult. 



The flying Cape pigeon was photographed hundreds of miles from land on November 18. 1912; the 

 swimming bird on the coast of South Georgia, November 26 



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