212 CASSELL'S BOOK OF BIRDS. 



stomachs of individuals captured by Tschudi during a continuance of bad weather, he found a most 

 miscellaneous collection both of eatable and uneatable substances — beans, peas, and lentils, mutton 

 bones, oakum, leather, slices of cabbage, leaves and ship-biscuits, pieces of wood, and, in short, 

 everything that had accidentally fallen from the ship, or been intentionally thrown overboard. In fine 

 weather the Cape Petrels appear to be shy and distrustful ; but during a storm, driven apparently by 

 hunger, they become positively reckless, and are very easily captured. The way in which, under these 

 circumstances, they are caught by sailors is simple enough ; a bent pin is tied to the end of a strong 

 string, to serve as a hook and line, a piece of bread or bacon is used for bait, and no sooner is this 

 thrown overboard than it is seized upon by a bird, which, by a well-timed jerk of the string, becomes 

 hooked through the upper jaw, and is at once pulled on board. In very stormy weather it naturally 



THE CAPE PETREL (Procellaria or Daption Capensis). ONE-FOURTH NATURAL SIZE. 



happens that so light a bait never reaches the water, but is suspended fluttering in the wind ; yet even 

 under these circumstances they will fly at it with the utmost avidity, and if not caught by the hook, 

 generally become so entangled by the string that they are unable to escape. When drawn into the 

 ship they defend themselves valiantly with their beak, and moreover have an ugly trick of squirting 

 from their mouth right into the face of their enemy a loathsome, stinking, oily fluid, which certainly 

 to some extent avenges them for the treatment they experience. When killed, they are skinned by 

 the sailors, and their skins made into weathercocks, the only use to which they seem to be 

 applicable. 



" This Martin among the Petrels," says Gould, " swims lightly ; but it rarely exercises natatorial 

 power except to procure food, in pursuit of which it occasionally dives for a moment or two. 

 Nothing can be more graceful than its motions when on the wing, with the neck shortened and the 

 legs entirely hidden among the feathers of the under tail-covers. Like the other Petrels it ejects 

 when irritated an oily fluid from the mouth. Its feeble note of ' Cac, cac, cac, cac,' is frequently uttered ; 



