I.
GIANTG..
Pl. c.
Quebrantahueffos, Bong. Pay. p. 63.— Ccopj Piji. ii. p. 203.— Voy. Si.
p. 516.— Buf. Oij. ix. p. 319.
-----— —----— , or Ofprey Petrel, ForJl. Ob/. p. 202..
■------------------- Mouton, Perntt. Voy. i. p. 15. t. 8. fig. 3. (the bill.).
Ofiifraga, or Break Bones, Utica Pay. 8v'o. ii, p. 214.
Br. Mu/..
Description, J I G G E R than a Goofe: length forty inches : expands feven
feet. The bill is four inches and a half in length, remarkably
ftout, and the upper mandible very hooked at the end ; the tube
on the top of it occupies at leaft two. inches and a. half from
the bafe; the colour a fine dulky yellow, not unlike that of po-
lilhed box-wood: at the angle of the mouth a naked wrinkled
yellow Ikin.: the crown of the head is dulky: the fides of it,
fore part of the neck, breaft, and belly, white.: hind part of the
neck, and upper part of the body, pale browa, mottled with
dulky white : fcapulars, wing coverts, quills, and tail, plain
dulky browa; the laft fix inches in length, and the feathers
darkeft in the middle : legs four inches long: the toes five, of a.
greyilh yellow s webs dulky: the fpur behind ftout and pointed,
but fliort: claws dulky.
Place and Theie were met with by our voyagers at Staaten Land, Terra
Manners. del'Fuego, and IJle of Defolation, and other places in the high
fouthern latitudes. Are often feen failing; with the wings expanded,
clofe to the furface of the water, but without appearing
to move them. Like others of this genus, are faid to be molt
aftive, and in the greateft numbers, in llorms, or when they are
approaching ; hence their appearance is an unwelcome fight to
the mariner. Like the Albatrofs alfo vifits the northern hemifphere
j.
fphere; being feen by our laft navigators in lat. 44. 10. N. in'
March * ; off the coafts of Nootka Sound in April f ; and again
further north, on the American coaft, in May, in pairs J : from
which may not unaptly be concluded the pojfibility of their
breeding in the north, though as yet no one has mentioned with
certainty where they propagate their fpecies : if it be in the fouth,
they muft migrate in the fame manner, as the Albatrofs, which is
not unlikely, as they are frequently found, in company with, that
bird, and it muft be confefied that they are found in the greateft.
quantity in the fouthern regions. Captain Cook. met with them in
vaft numbers'in Chriflmas Harbour, Kerguelen's Land §, in December,
where they were fo tame, that they fuffered themfelves to
be knocked on the head by our failors with a. ftick, on the.
beach. Thefe are carnivorous birds, feeding on the dead car-
cafes of feals or birds, though their chief food is undoubtedly fifi.
They are for the molt part ranked as Albatrojes by the failors;
but by the more difcernihg of them are well known by the name
of Mother Cary’s Geefe-, and are thought to be very good food \[.
• Cook's laft Voy. ii. p. 258. f Td. p. 299»
t Id, p. 352.— If we do not miftake, this is one of the forts called Glupiftai
mentioned as fo frequent in all foe iffands between Kamtfchatka and America,,,
that they are covered with them. One of thefe is faid to be as big as a Goofe.
or an Eagle. Bill crooked> yellowilh : eyes as large as thofe of an Owl: colour:
hlack, intermixed with white fpots all over the body. Two hundred of them,
have been feen at once feeding on a dead Whale.— See Hift, Kamt/, p. 156.
§. Cook's laft.Voy, I, p. 87. j[ Id, g p. 205.
Lo
k L