108 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



southerly blow with rain, and the birds were found nearer shore than usual, 

 about four miles out. While the Wilson's Petrels, attracted by the cod livers 

 we were throwing out to them, surrounded our boat in numbers, suddenly 

 there appeared a Greater Shearwater, immediately recognized and distinguished 

 from the Gulls by its characteristic appearance and flight. In all, we saw six or 

 eight Greater Shearwaters and two or three Sooty Shearwaters. 



The Shearwaters have a very characteristic manner of gliding or scaling 

 swiftly near the water with their long pointed wings slightly decurved. As 

 they fly and scale about the boat, all their motions are graceful in the extreme. 

 Now they glide straight away, close to the surface of the waves, appearing and 

 disappearing, as the great surges rise and fall ; again, they swing in graceful 

 circles around the fishing boat, all alert for the food to be found in that vicinity. 

 Alighting on the water, they rush forward eagerly to seize the bits of cod livers, 

 holding their head and breast well up, the wings partly spread. This position 

 in the Greater Shearwater, displays the dark bars and markings on the inner 

 sides of the wings and on the flanks. In seizing the food, their heads and necks 

 are eagerly stretched out along the water. Besides cod livers, they are evidently 

 very fond of squids, for one that I shot contained in its stomach the horny 

 beaks of twenty-four squids. 



Mr. George Dobson, of Rockport, with whom I have sailed several times to 

 find water birds, had thirty-five years ago caught many of the "Hags " on the 

 Grand Banks for bait. He told me that each dory was required to catch two 

 hundred with hook and line each morning. This was done very quickly as the 

 boats were surrounded by the birds eager for the cod livers. The " Hags " were 

 then skinned, pounded with a mallet to break the bones, and cut up with a sharp 

 knife into small pieces to bait the trawls. In this account he agreed with the 

 description given by Capt. J. W. Collins. 1 Since that time Mr. Dobson said 

 that the practice of using " Hags " has been given up in favor of " fresh bait," — 

 herring, capelin, and squid kept on ice. The "Hags" when skinned and freed 

 from fat, he said, were much appreciated as food by the fishermen, and I can 

 attest that when treated in this way and properly cooked they are tender and to 

 one who is used to sea fowl, really very good eating. 



The manner of flight already described distinguishes Shearwaters from 

 Gulls. The dark back and top of the head contrasting with the white breast 

 and throat is noticeable in the Greater Shearwater ; the wings also are dark, the 

 lower surface, however, being silvery gray. 



[90] Puffinus puffinus (Briinn.). Manx Shearwater. "A North Atlantic species, chiefly 



1 J. W. Collins : U. S. Comm. Fish and Fisheries, Report for 1S82, pp. 311-338, 18S4. 



