PROCELLARID.E. 83 



that it possesses the power of flight, aud does not even attempt to use its wings, but waddles 

 about like an old farmyard duck." Like the Albatross, these birds when once attached to a 

 ship seldom leave, if unmolested, until land, or some other vessel, attracts them. I remember 

 a red one (probably caught, painted, aud let fly again by some wag) following us for days 

 and days together, and then deliberately deserting us for a homeward-bounder. We were 

 nearing port, and the new ship was leaving it ; hence the desertion. The wing makes a very 

 pretty hat-feather for a young lady, which, I am told, often acts as a powerful incentive to the 

 Cape Pigeon fishermen. The bird is thus described by Gould : — " Head, chin, back and sides 

 of neck, upper part of the back, lesser wing-coverts, edge of the under surface of the wing, and 

 the primaries, sooty-brown ; wing-coverts, back, and upper tail-coverts, white, each feather 

 tipped with sooty-brown ; basal half of the tail white ; apical half sooty-brown ; under surface 

 white ; the under tail-coverts tipped with sooty-brown ; beneath the eye a small streak of 

 white; bill blackish brown; irides aud feet very dark brown." There are three specimens in 

 the Natural History Museum, showing well the great variation in the markings of the plumage. 

 It is there named the Pintado Petrel. Seebohm, in his new ' British Birds,' says a Cape 

 Pigeon was shot near Dublin in 1881. In the collection of H.M.S. 'Challenger' one was 

 obtained in the Ice Barrier, 14th January, 1874. 



Dove-like Prion {Prion turtur, Gould). — All the Prions are remarkable for their broad 

 bills, which is especially noticeable in the males. This beautiful little bird is well known 

 at sea as the "Whale-bird," and is so called from its curious broad laminated bill, 

 furnished, like the Right Whale, for feeding on the tiny Medusce. I remember at sea we 

 used to look out for them about the neighbourhood of Tristan-da-Cunha, where they 

 generally appear in flocks. Sometimes, however, they go singly, thereby differing from 

 the Fairy Prion or Ice-bird. I once caught one off the Cape that got entangled in a 

 Mother-Carey line. It is thus described by Gould: — "All the upper surface delicate blue- 

 grey ; the edge of the shoulders, the scapularies, outer margins of the external primaries, 

 and the tips of the middle tail-feather, black ; small spot before the eye and a stripe 

 beneath, black ; lores, line over, beneath and behind the eye, and all the under surface, 

 white, stained with blue on the flanks and under tail-coverts ; bill light blue, deepening 

 into black on the sides of the nostrils aud at the tip, and with a black line along the 

 side of the under mandible ; irides very dark brown ; feet beautiful light blue." Mr. Salvin 

 calls both this bird and the Fairy Prion Prion desolatus. 



Fairy Prion (Prion Ariel, Gould). — This Prion is much smaller than the last, and goes at 

 sea by the name of Ice-bird, or rather, I might say. Ice-birds, as I never remember seeing one 



