The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1897-03-17
Wadsworth Dispatc
PUBLISHED sEmi-wEtkLY
IS 90 Per Annum,
TIE sOoTY PETREl-.
A Fish Mating Bird That 10 Deemed a
Dtlioacy In Australia.

Imagine Cauoasians dining on sailed
petrels. aud with relish, too, as though
that fish eating sea bird were a luxury.
OF all the fowls hat haunt the barren
islands ON the California coast none Is
considered quito so worthless IA the
tooty petrol. Even the sea gull has his
usefulness rs "a scavenger on the bays
| along The coast. but the petrol is truly
a despised bird in these waters. Sea
gulls' z bring a price j. the market
that makes it worth while to gather
them ut a considerable expense, but no
one thinks it worth while to rob the
r%etrels' nests on the roolIeries at the
Farallone islands.
1t is different in Australia. Is it the
cold winds that blow up from the ant
arctic regions or the hot air that sweeps
down from the equator? No matter
what the cause, the fact is that the ap-
| petites Of our Australian cousins are
radically different. The sooty petrol is
there an edible fowl, with a decided
market value, and anumber of men and
small craft are employed each year in
catching, sailing, packing and carrying
it in great quantities from the rookeries
on Trefoil island and other adjoining
islands OH the north coast of Tasmania
to Stanley and Melbourne.
Mutton bird is the general name
given the petrol there, and the men and
ships engaged in the business are known
as mutton birders. To Americans this
~ quite "a novel industry, and the fact
that such common sea birds as the petrol
are packed and sailed down like so much
pork is always a matter of wonderment
to strangers who go there. But the test
Ct the pudding is in the eating of it, and
those who have dined off mutton birds
instead Of land mutton pronounce the
one every bit as good as the other.
Ii you leave San Francisco in August,
sailing westward and southwark, you
will pass many great fiocks of birds that
will be pointed out to you as sooty pc
trels-or they will pass you, for they
are travelling about three times faster
than you are. And when you reach Mel
bourne and have become acclimatcd
enough to venture a trip across to Tas-
mania, yOu may dine off the young of
those very birds that passed you on the
California coast, only now they will be
served to You as mutton birds.
These fowls leave the Farallones ev-
cry few months, and once every year
they visit Australia. Trefoil island is
their chief roosting place in the south
ern hemisphere, SO far as is known.
Here they ST ratch and dig in the barren
soil until they have burrowed "a hole
perhaps two feet deep. Into these holes
each hen in the immense flock deposits
her one egg. The mutton birder inserts
his arm full stretch for his game. He
does not take the egg, but waits a week
or ten days after the egg has been hatch
ed. Then he finds the yonng bird almost
as big as the parent, but much more
teuder and fat. On land the petrol is
quite unable to escape from the catchers.
1t cannot mount into the air from off
the land, though its wings are enur.
mously long in proportion to its black
ftdy, and 1t rises quite gracefully from
the wafer. On shore, however, the
strange bird must hop along at II slow
pace and can only fly from the top of a
ledge. Certain points Of Trefoil island
are Uttered with thousands of these
nests, aud it is no difficult task to gath.
er the yearly harvest of young mutton
birds. The mutton birding season on
Trefoil island lasts from "a month to six
weeks, and this includes the catching,
sailing, packing and shipping. They
are packed i'll casks, and these are loaded
on coasting %schooners thfS come after
them from Tasmania and Melbourne.
BY the time the fresh crop of mutton
birds is being eaten mt Melbourne the
adult parents, with perhaps q certain
percentage OF be young ones that have
escaped the catcbers, are returning to
their old baunts, occupying the old and
scratching new rests on the Farallone
islands. Here the birds are practically
unmolested, and it may thus he said,
with some basis in reason. that tho Cal
ifornia coast is supplying the Australian
consters with their edible sea fowl.
1t is true, Of course, that tho patrel
finds other quiet nesting places be sides
! the islands off the California coast, bur
il is also true th;rt Catalina, the Santa
Barbara channel islands and the Fsral-
| ones are their chief roolleries Oh This
coast, and that at certain seasons these
stands tIe entirely deserted by them.
| While the islands off Tasmania ard tho
southern coast OF Australia then swarm
with them.-Sa4 Francisco Chronicle.
The Other Eaby.
They occupied the seats opposite me
II the railway station. There were four
rem and one little woman and one very