16 History of the Mutton Bird. 
distinctly smelt the Sooty Petrel rookeries at the distance 
of seven miles, when there has been a light breeze from 
the eastward. 
The old birds are very oily, but the young are literally 
one mass of fat, and have a tallowy appearance, from 
which, I presume, the name Mutton Bird. I have not 
ascertained what the general food of the Sooty Petrel is : 
the young are fed with grass or seaweed, though probably 
with other food besides. The older birds, I judged from 
their oiliness, fed on blubber ; but I have never seen 
them along with the other sea-fowl upon the carcases of 
whales driven on shore. They appear fond of resorting 
to the large beds of kelp along the coast. 
I have before mentioned the extreme rapidity with 
which these birds fly. They arrive at their rookeries at 
sunset, and less than an hour before that time I have seen 
them wending their way homewards when off St. Helen’s 
Point. r J he distance from the nearest rookery would 
then be fifty miles. From these data their rate of flying 
cannot be fairly estimated at less than sixty miles an 
hour. 
Notwithstanding the enormous annual destruction of 
these birds, I did not, during the five years that I was in 
the habit of visiting the Straits, perceive any sensible 
diminution of their number : coupling that with the fact 
that they only lay one egg, I was inclined to think that 
they bred twice a year, the second time in some remote 
region. That hypothesis I laid aside, in consequence of 
the length of time that the young take in arriving at 
maturity. I think, however, that these circumstances 
combined, form a good ground-work for supposing that 
the birds live to a considerable age. 
