A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World Volume 2Cook, James
History
A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World Volume 2
Cook, James
Antarctica; Oceania -- Discovery and exploration -- Early works to 1800; Voyages around the world -- Early works to 1800
The penguin is an amphibious bird, so well known to most people, that I
shall only observe, they are here in prodigious numbers, so that we
could knock down as many as we pleased with a stick. I cannot say they
are good eating. I have indeed made several good meals of them, but it
was for want of better victuals. They either do not breed here, or else
this was not the season; for we saw neither eggs nor young ones.
Shags breed here in vast numbers; and we carried on board not a few, as
they are very good eating. They take certain spots to themselves, and
build their nests near the edge of the cliffs on little hillocks, which
are either those of the sword-grass, or else they are made by the shags
building on them from year to year. There is another sort rather smaller
than these, which breed in the cliffs of rocks.
The geese are of the same sort we found in Christmas Sound; we saw but
few, and some had young ones. Mr Forster shot one which was different
from these, being larger, with a grey plumage, and black feet. The
others make a noise exactly like a duck. Here were ducks, but not many;
and several of that sort which we called race-horses. We shot some, and
found them to weigh twenty-nine or thirty pounds; those who eat of them
said they were very good.
The oceanic birds were gulls, terns, Port Egmont hens, and a large brown
bird, of the size of an albatross, which Pernety calls quebrantahuessas.
We called them Mother Carey's geese, and found them pretty good eating;
The land-birds were eagles, or hawks, bald-headed vultures, or what our
seamen called turkey-buzzards, thrushes, and a few other small birds.
Our naturalists found two new species of birds. The one is about the
size of a pigeon, the plumage as white as milk. They feed along-shore,
probably on shell-fish and carrion, for they have a very disagreeable
smell. When we first saw these birds we thought they were the
snow-peterel, but the moment they were in our possession the mistake was
discovered; for they resemble them in nothing but size and colour. These
are not webb-footed. The other sort is a species of curlews nearly as
big as a heron. It has a variegated plumage, the principal colours
whereof are light-grey, and a long crooked bill.
I had almost forgot to mention that there are sea-pies, or what we
called, when in New Zealand, curlews; but we only saw a few straggling
pairs. It may not be amiss to observe, that the shags are the same bird
which Bougainville calls saw-bills; but he is mistaken in saying that
the quebrantahuessas are their enemies; for this bird is of the peterel
tribe, feeds wholly on fish, and is to be found in all the high southern
latitudes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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