I9 oi] SOUTHERN BIRDS 77 



term ' Eglet ' seems to have been applied to various species. 

 But the ' Wanderer,' ' Sooty,' '. Cape Hen,' ' Cape Pigeon,' 

 'Giant Petrel,' and many others are survivals which the ordinary 

 man still prefers to employ in preference to the scientific 

 designation. It was the shooting of a ' Sooty ' albatross by one 

 Simon Hartley in Shelvocke's voyage that supplied the theme 

 immortalised in the ' Ancient Mariner.' 



Our zoologist Dr. Wilson was possessed of the necessary 

 knowledge to distinguish and name our various visitors, and 

 with his assistance most of us soon became familiar with even 

 the rarer species. This not only added greatly to the interest 

 of the voyage, but enabled us in turn to assist in keeping the 

 record of such visits. 



Various devices were resorted to in our endeavours to 

 capture birds for our collection, and sooner or later examples 

 of most of the species were brought on board. The larger 

 albatrosses were caught by towing a small metal triangle, well 

 baited; when a bird settled, the line would be slacked, and as 

 it pecked at the bait a jerk of the line would sometimes catch 

 its beak in the sharp angle of the triangle, when by keeping a 

 steady strain on the line the bird could be landed. The 

 smaller birds were usually caught by becoming entangled in 

 long streamers of strong thread which were allowed to float 

 away in the wind. A lead weight on the end of a string was 

 also a means of capturing such birds as flew close to the ship. 



The weight would be thrown over the bird so that, in fall- 

 ing, the string would descend across the wings. All such 

 devices required mucn patience and deftness to be effective, 

 and our most successful bird catchers, the chief engineer, Mr. 

 Skelton, and the second engineer, Mr. Dellbridge, spent many 

 a patient hour before they were rewarded with a capture. 



The larger albatrosses rarely go as far south as the ice, but 

 the smaller species of white albatrosses, as well as the dusky, 

 sinister-looking ' Sooty,' accompanied us as far as the edge of 

 the pack. But the birds which live in the regions of ice are 

 rarely met with in the more northerly seas, though a few are 

 widely distributed. It may be taken for granted that all the 



