Though the members of this Family can hardly be called gregarious, flocks of Shearwaters, Fulmars, and so forth are by no means an uncommon sight from shipboard, and settlements are formed in the breeding season, which is almost the only occasion on which they voluntarily seek dry land. Albatroses, Fulmars, the "Cape Pigeon" (_Daption_), and other allied forms are observed most commonly in the daytime, whereas those that nest under cover are to a great extent nocturnal during incubation, and are generally seen or heard after dusk. While the whole group is oceanic, there is a wide difference between the powerful Albatros and its smaller and weaker relations in that respect, the latter journeying but little from the immediate neighbourhood of their homes, and not accompanying ships for long distances in the same way as the former. In the larger species the flight is strong and graceful,[64] accompanied by circling, soaring, or sailing movements, the feet being extended below the tail; Shearwaters skim the waves in a curious twisting fashion, and the lesser Petrels flit with greater action of the wing close to the {62}surface, upon which they paddle to assist themselves. The Diving Petrels–and their allies to a limited extent–plunge through or beneath the billows, while all species may be noticed at times resting or swimming upon the water. Equally at home in storm or calm, they pass the greater part of their lives upon the ocean, and it seems impossible to doubt the fact that they sleep there also. Great difficulty is experienced in rising from a level surface, whether it be the deck of a ship or a grassy flat; the birds scrambling along with flapping wings and occasional aid from the bill, until some slight declivity or broken edge enables them to obtain a start. When taken from a nest in a burrow, they either drop to the ground like stones, or flutter off in a dazed condition, which lasts for several seconds, and renders them absolutely helpless. The cry is said in various cases to resemble a bray, a croak, a harsh cackle, a diabolical scream, a puppy's whine, or a soft whistle, while the twittering or "singing" of _Procellaria_, _Oceanodroma_, and _Oceanites_ in their holes is well known to those who have visited a Storm Petrel's colony. The food consists of fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and other molluscs, jellyfish, and the like, Albatroses and Fulmars being said to force other species to part with their booty after the manner of Skuas, or even to devour nestlings. Herbage is rarely found in the stomach, but blubber of dead animals and scraps thrown from shipboard are eagerly swallowed, so that many of the largest forms are captured by concealing a hook in a piece of pork and trailing it in the water on a cork, when the bait is often greedily contested by every individual in the vicinity. Albatroses and other members of the Family which will take food from the surface of the sea descend upon it with elevated wings, to rise again with