1909
Oct. 12 [October 12, 1909]
(No 2) 
wind with no great difficulty although it was not unusual for
a bird to strike the crests of several low waves in succession before
getting at a safe elevation above the heavy waves. But those
to leeward had to rise down wind and with few or any
exceptions they made clumsy work of it and nearly always 
dropped back into the water again after fluttering along over
its surface for a few rods without once getting fairly clear of it.
When fairly on wing they flew off very swiftly for a mile or
more just above the crest of the waves. Those that dove rarely
happened within my view. One and all floated very lightly
on the tossing waves and showed their strongly contrasted
black & white markings most conspicuously. They were exceedingly
pretty little birds seen thus in the bright sunshine in the 
dark steel gray water. In our spot when there were many
tiny white caps breaking I found it difficult to distinguish
the birds from these.
  Nearly all the Petrels were on wing. I did not once see a
Mother Cary's [Mother Carey's] alight & close its wings. When I was crossing to
England in July I had some instructive talks with an old
sea captain who had been a master of sailing vessels for over
forty years. He assured me that during his entire experience on
the oceans of all parts of the worlds he had never seen a
Mother Cary's [Mother Carey's] floating on the water with actually folded wings
and he felt confident that they never rest thus even at night.
Some of the Fulmars & Shearwater seen today were in the
water but only a very few. By far the greater numbers kept
ever on wing wandering about over the ocean apparently quite
aimlessly sometimes pausing for a moment over the wake of our
ship but never following it. The flight of the two species is
similar but that of the Fulmar is a trifle the firmer & gives
one more the impression of definiteness of purpose & of momentum.