216 
When clustering together and disputing for the possession of some floating offal, they utter a 
low cackling note, like Jca-Jca-ka-ka. 
The peculiar roundness of back which characterizes the various species of Albatros and other 
Procellariidae, when on the wing, is conspicuously apparent in this bird. 
Professor Hutton states that he has observed a Cape-Pigeon following a ship for several days in 
succession, when she has been making from 150 to 200 miles in the twenty-four hours. He adds : — 
“ It is, I believe, the generally received opinion of naturalists that these birds, when seen for several 
days together, have never slept during the whole period, but have followed the ship night and day. 
To me, however, it appears incredible that any animal should be able to undergo so much exertion 
for so long a time without taking rest. Mr. Gould says that birds caught and marked are generally 
seen next day ; but such is not my experience. I have sometimes marked ten or twelve Cape-Pigeons 
in a day, and seldom seen one again. Mr. Gould, however, is quite right when he says that some- 
times a marked bird turns up after being absent for two or three days ; and how can this be accounted 
for by the theoi’y of the birds constantly following the ship 1 Most of the Petrels, more particularly 
those that burrow or live in holes in rocks, are no doubt nocturnal in their habits when they are on 
or near land ; but when they are at sea they all become more diurnal. A few can certainly be often 
seen flying under the stern at night ; and once, when I was keeping the middle watch, at about 1 a.m., 
a Cape-Pigeon, in crossing over the ship, struck a rope and fell on deck. Still they are never 
numerous, and where there were fifty or a hundred birds in the daytime there ai'e only one or two at 
night. Their defenceless condition is, as far as I can see, the only reason for the Petrels hiding 
themselves by day and flying by night ; for the oceanic mollusca &c. on which they feed are equally 
diurnal and nocturnal. At sea, however, where they have no enemies to fear and no holes to hide 
in, the conditions are quite different, and it is then better for them to take their rest at night and to 
be alert and feeding in the daytime, and they change their habits accordingly. I thei'efore believe 
that, although a few may follow a ship for a night, most of them sleep on the sea; and in the 
morning, knowing very well that a ship is the most likely place to obtain food, they fly high with the 
intention of looking for one. Some find the ship that they were with the day before ; some another 
one. In the latter case, if the second ship is going in an opposite direction to the first, they are 
never seen by the first again ; if, hoAvever, the course of the two ships is the same, the bird might 
very likely lose the second ship and rejoin the first, after a lapse of two or three days. A height of 
1000 feet would enable a bird to see a ship 200 feet high more than fifty miles off; and often, 
although unable to see a ship itself, it would see another bird which had evidently discovered one, 
and would folloAV it in the same way that Vultures are known to follow one another. This opinion 
is much strengthened by the fact that at sunrise very few birds are round the ship, but soon after- 
wards they begin to arrive in large numbers ; and I think I may safely say that this is always the 
case ; for, having had to be on deck from four to eight o’clock every third morning for six of my 
voyages, and about once a week during my last voyage, I have had better opportunities for observing 
this than most people.” (Ibis, 1865, pp. 292-294.) 
Mr. Layard writes : — “ At one season of the year, about November and December, they disappear, 
and the voyager finds the sea duller and tamer than ever. We presume they go off to breed ; but 
Avhere they select their nurseries we know not.” 
Sealers declare that the only locality known as a breeding-place of this species is the island of 
South Georgia ; and, common as the bird is in all the temperate latitudes of the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans, its egg is still a desideratum in all the known collections. 
