The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-01-30
MUTTON BIRD.
The sooty Petrol IL Esteemed Deiics0y
In Australia

IN. sooty Petrol IL Esteemed . DeiicscJ
In Australia
Tastes differ in different ATTITUDES
even among English-speaking people
Imagine Caucasians dining on sailed
/ Eetrels and with relish. TOO. as thougs
that fish-eating sea bird we're luxury
] or all the fowl that haun: the barren
/ islands on the California coast none Is
considered quite SO worthless as the
sooty petrol. Even the scagull has his
usefulness as a 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 il worth while to gather
them at a considerable expense. but no
one thinks it worth while to rob the
| petrels' nests on the rookeries at the
Farallon islands.
1t is different in Australia. Is IL 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-
tites Of our Australian cousins are radi-
caIly different. The sooty petrol IL
there All edible fowl with decided
market value. and number Of men and
small craft are employed each year in
catching, sailing, packing and carrying
il in great quantities from the rookeries
OH 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 us
the petrol are packed and salted 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 il and those who have dined oil
mutton birds instead of land mutton
pronounce the one every bit as good az
the other.
II you leave San Francisco in August
sailing westward and southwark you
will pass many great flocks Of birds
that will be pointed out 10 you rs sooty
petrels-or they will pass you, for they
are travelling about three times faster
than you are. And wh.a YOU reach
Melbourne and have become acclimated
enough 10 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 10 you rs mutton birds.
These fov J.. leave the Farallones every
few months aad once every year they
visit Australia. Trefoil island is their
chief roostiny-place in the southern
SO far Us is known. Here
they scratch and dig in the barren soil
until they have burrowed a hole per
haps two feet deep. Into these holes
zach hen in the immense flock deposits
her one egg. The mutton birder inserts
mis- 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 its wings
arc 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
at slow pace and can only fly from the
top of ledge. Certain points of Trefoil
island are Uttered with thousands OF
these nests and il is no difficult task
10 gather the yearly harvest of young
mutton birds. The mutton-birding
season on 1refoil lasts from
month TO six weeks and this includes
the catching, sailing, packing ard ship
ping. They are packed in casks and (
these are loaded on coastinS schooners
that come after them from Tasmania I
and Melbourne.-San Francisco Chron-
cle.