Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-02-04
MUTTON BIRD.
The sooty Petrol La Esteemed Delicacy
i'm Australia.

IN Australia.
Tastes differ in different latitudes
even among English-speaking people
Imagine Caucasians dining on sailed
Eetrels and with a relish, too, as though
that fish-eating sea bird were luxury
OF ali the fowl that haunt the barren
islands on the California coast none is
considered quite SO worthless as the
sooty petrol. Even the seagull has his
usefulness as scavenger on the bays
along the coast but the petrol is truly a
despised bird in these waters. Sea-
gull's eggs bring price In the market
that makes it worth while to gather
them at considerable expense, but no
one thinks it worth while to rob the
petrels' nests on the rookeries at the
Tarallon 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 appe-
titles of our Australian cousins are radi-
cally different. The sooty petrol ia
there an edible fowl with decided
market value, and number 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 on the north coast of Tasmania
to Stanley and Melbourne.
Mutton birds is the general name
given the petrol there and the men and
ships engaged in the business are
known as mutton birders." To Ameri-
cans this is quite novel industry and
the fact that such common sea birds MS
the petrol are packed and sailed down
like so much pork is always matter Of
wonderment to strangers who go there.
But the test of the pudding is in the eat
ing of it and those who have dined oil
mutton birds instead of land mutton
pronounce the one every bit as good as
the other.
If you leave San Francisco III August
sailing westward and southwark you
will pass many great flocks. of birds
that will be pointed out to you as sooty
petrels-or they win pass you, for they
are travelling about three times faster
than you are. And when you reach
Melbourne and have become acclimated
enough to venture 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 every
few months and once every year they
,,e,@ 81 s., la,
chief roosting-place in the southern
hemisphere, SO far as is known. Here
they scratch and dig in the barren soil
until they have burrowed hole per-
haps 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 week
or ten days after the egg has been
Matched. Then he finds the young bird
almost as big as its parent, but much
more tender 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 it's wings
are enormously long in proportion to
its black body and it rises quite grace
fully from the water. On shore, how
ever, the strange bird must hop along
Mt a slow pace and can only fly from the
top of a ledge. Certain points of Trefoil
island are Uttered with thousands of
these nests and it is no difficult task
to gather the yearly harvest of young
mutton birds. The mutton-birding
season on Trefoil lasts from a
month to six weeks and this Includes
the catching, sailing, packing and ship
ping. They are packed in casks and
these are loaded on coasting schooners
that come after them from Tasmania
and Melbourne.-San Francisco Chron-
icle.