CHAPTER XXIV 

 CAPE PIGEONS AND WHALE BIRDS 



THE Pintado Petrel, as the Cape Pigeon is some- 

 what pedantically called by the naturalist, is a 

 most delightful and cheery little bird, although 

 his habitat is one of the loneliest known. If I dared, 

 I would say that the Cape Pigeon is the marine 

 counterpart of the peewit or plover. But an unscien- 

 tific observer does get dropped upon so for a casual re- 

 mark like that, that perhaps I had better go no farther 

 than to say that in colour, in flight, and in voice ; yes, 

 and in size also, there is a very distinct and striking 

 similarity between the pretty black-and-white citizen 

 of the great South Sea and the peewit of the newly- 

 ploughed land in our own dear home. In vivacity of 

 movement the difference is in favour of the sea-bird 

 — an overmastering energy seems to be continually 

 impelling it to action, and I should be quite prepared 

 to find that it does not sit quietly upon its eggs. 



But perhaps before I go any farther I must try to 

 give a little description of this, to southern-going 

 seamen, exceedingly well-known bird, though to 

 naturalists hardly known at all. In size it is between 

 an ordinary tame pigeon and a wood-pigeon, not quite 

 so elegant in its outlines, and with a somewhat larger 

 head in proportion to the size of its body. Like all 

 the petrels, it has a hooked beak, which is really an 



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