48 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
widely over the southern oceans, breeding on Kergue- 
len Island and lonely rocks nearer still to the perennial 
ice. It is not, therefore, surprising that it has been 
sometimes recorded on our coast. The fishermen of 
Torquay have seen it while out in the straits, and 
there are specimens in the Melbourne Museum from 
Melbourne (1861) and Cape Otway (October, 1878). 
The head and mantle are dark chocolate, almost 
black, under surface pure white, and back mottled 
black and white. Large white patches on the upper 
surface of the wings are very noticeable in flight. 
The Cape Pigeon flies with a rapid motion of the 
wings, then soars, then resumes the wing-beats ; 
somehow it always reminded me of the Black-cheeked 
Falcon in this respect, dissimilar as the birds are in 
colour. Indeed, there is no other bird which at all 
resembles the Cape Pigeon. 
I found this to be almost the commonest of the 
many birds which followed the Knight of the Garter 
from three days out of Sydney right into Valparaiso. 
There is a quaint reason given for the dislike of sail rs 
to having these birds killed : it is that they are the 
spirits of dead mariners — " shellbacks " — following 
ever in the wake of ships for yearning for the old life 
overpast. 
This is the bird of which the poet Masefield speaks 
in his description in " Dauber " of the ominous oily 
calm before the advent of a storm off the Horn : 
" The pigeons quarrelled, clattering in the track : 
In the south-west the dimness dulled to black." 
