20 OCEAN BIRDS. 



the thing, apparently playmg a sort of "touched you last" with the astonished fish! Let 

 us, then, dismiss all superstitions detrimental to them from our minds ; and rather he it 

 our pleasure to minutely study the birds, and thereby interpret for our own benefit such 

 prophetic signs as their habits may be capable of giving us. Wilson says on the 

 subject: — "As well might they curse the midnight lighthouse that, star-like, guides them 

 on their watery way, or the buoy that warns them of the sunken rock below, as this 

 homeless wanderer, whose manner informs them of the approach of the storm, and 

 thereby enables them to prepare for it." Happily, however, they are comparatively safe 

 when following a ship at sea. Be it from love or be it from fear, the result to them 

 is the same; most sailors will protect the "Mother Carey's Chicken." 



I well remember some years ago seeing a quartermaster leave his wheel, and 

 forcibly take the line out of a passenger's hand to free a little "Mother Carey" entangled 

 therein. I knew the sailor well ; and waves running mountains high, threatening to 

 engulf him and poop the ship, would not have induced him to leave the helm, for a 

 first-rate sailor was he. Taciturn and respectful, too, and by no means given to insulting 

 passengers ; but this enormity carried out before his very eyes was more than he could 

 stand. The Captain soon heard of it, but wisely considered it a misdemeanour best 

 ignored, and at the same time, with much tact, smoothed down the ruffled feelings 

 of the indignant fisherman. To those, then, anxious for specimens, and on board vessels 

 where such feelings exist, I would say do your fishing at night, or unobserved, and 

 by this means you will avoid openly wounding the susceptibilities of any sensitive or 

 superstitious mariner. 



I was fortunate in one voyage in being the possessor of a stern cabin, and many is 

 the "Mother Carey" I have hauled in at the port to keep as a specimen, or examine 

 and let fly again, as they are not in the slightest degree injured by the process. All the 

 gear required is thread with a cork at the end, rounded so as to avoid any jerky strain 

 from the waves. To obtain the right shape, partially burn the cork that you have 

 already cut into the appearance of a large marble, and then rub it round and round in 

 your hands. The birds fly against the line and entangle themselves. I have invariably 

 found you could catch twice as many fishing at night ; sometimes, of course, a Cape 

 Pigeon or other large Petrel carries away all your gear, but that is soon rectified. 

 Dr. Coppinger, in his ' Cruise of the Alert,' makes a strong point of the fact to prove they 

 are on the wing all night. 



On shore the treatment of these charming little birds is of a very common-place 

 order. Morris tells us that the inhabitants of the Ferroe and other islands use them for 



