UFE HISTORIKS OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 53 



in succession. My observations rather foster tlie belief tliat the personnel is 

 constantly changing. The number of birds varies from, day to day, and on sev- 

 eral occasions when birds with some peculiar mark, which would not be readily 

 duplicated, have been noted, th.ey have not been seen again. Furthermore, I 

 have so frequently had intelligent persons (obviously in error, or quite un- 

 justified in their convictions) point out sea birds as having followed a ship for 

 long periods, that I have become very sceptical of such assertions. 



The cape pigeon has something the build of the domestic bird, the name of 

 which it bears, being stockier than the shearwaters. Its flight is more truly 

 sailing than that of any northern bird known to me, and typical of the southern 

 sailing Tubmares. It flaps its wings much less frequently than the shearwaters, 

 though at times with a good breeze these also scud over and among the waves 

 for considerable periods on stiff, motionless wings. In the high winds which 

 predominate on the seas it inhabits, one may watch an individual cape pigeon 

 in the air for a long time without seeing a flap of the vfings. In more moderate 

 breezes it not infrequently gives them a few flaps. Like other sailing petrels, 

 it often leans to one side as it goes, usually turning toward the down wing. 



Kelating to what Mr. Nichols says about certain individual birds 

 following a ship, Captain Hutton (1865) was " informed by Lieuten- 

 ant Weld, E. N., that a cape pigeon, with a piece of red ribbon round 

 its neck, once followed the ship he was in for 1,500 miles." 



Mr. Kobert C. Murphy (1914) made the following observations on 

 this species : 



They ran like albatrosses — that is, foot after foot — Eilong the surface when 

 launching Into flight. They followed a trailing bait by setting their wings as 

 gliders, keeping the breast just an inch or so above the sea, and propelling 

 themselves with rapid, alternating strokes of their feet. In this manner they 

 sometimes covered long distances without an apparent beat of the wings. 



The birds rarely, if ever, flew directly before the wind, but either took it 

 " on the quarter " or else headed into it, raised the body axis, and allowed 

 themselves to be carried backward like a kite. The last method was regu- 

 larly adopted by Petrella capensis, flocks of these birds covering considerable 

 distances tail foremost. 



Godman (1907) refers to the notes of this species as follows: 



The cape pigeon, unlike most of its allies, utters a distinct cry, strong and 

 raucous — cac-cac, cac-cac, cac — increasing in rapidity, but during the period 

 of courtship the birds coo and cluck, and continue. Dr. Pirie says, their love- 

 note, though to a less degree, throughout the period o^. incubation. They make 

 a great noise when attacking a dead seal, the fat of which they are very fond. 



Winter. — At the close of the breeding season in May these petrels 

 migrate northward or move away -from their breeding places, to 

 which they do not return again until about the first of October. In 

 the meantime they wander widely over the southern oceans, but 

 seldom venture as far north as the Equator. What few specimens 

 have been taken in Europe and -North America were either rare 

 stragglers from southern seas or were perhaps brought north by 

 sailors as pets and released. 

 83969—22 5 



