The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1897-02-13
Ire . PElhEl.
A Fish Eating Bird That Is Deemed .
Delicacy In Australia.

~ ISL GSItiHy AiEu Hi ~ IttFi1C -
Delicacy In Australia.
Tastes differ in different ATTITUDES,
sven among English speaking people.
Imagine C~aucasians dining on sailed
petrels, and with relish, 100. as though
that fish eating sea bird wero a luxury.
Of all the fowls that haunt the barren
islands OF the California coast none is
considered quite so worthless as the
sooty petrol. Even the sea gull has his
usefulness as q seayenger on the bays
along the coast. but the petrol is truly
a desplsed bird i'll these waters. Sea
gulls' eggs bring a price in the market
that makes it worth while to gather
them ut a considerable expense, but no
one thinks it worth while to rob tho
petrels' nests on the rookerles at the
Farallone islands.
It is different i'll Australia. Il it the
cold winds that blow mp 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 i'll great quantities from the rookeries
on Trefoil island and other adjoining
islands on 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
rs mutton birders. To Americans this
is quite a novel industry, and the fact
that such common sea birds as the petrol
arc packed and sailed down like SO much
pork is always a matter of wonderment
TO strangers who go there. But the test
of 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 az the other.
IL you leave San Francisco III 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 acclimated
enough TO venture o 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 tC you as mutton birds.
These fowls leave the F~arallones ev-
cry few months, and once every year
they visit Australia. Trefoil island il
their chief roosting place in the south
ern hemisphere, so far as is known.
Here they scratch 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 II 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 young bird almost
az big as the parent, but much more
tender and fat. On land the petrol is
quite unable to escape from the catchers.
lt cannot mount into the air from off
the land, though its wings are enur-
mo.sly long i'll proportion to its black
body. and it rises quite gracefully from
the water. On shore, however, the
strange bird must hop along at a slow
pace and q only fly from tho 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 i month to six
weeks, and this includes the catching,
sailing, packing and shipping. They
are packed Ill casks, and these are loaded
on coasting schconers that como after
them from Tasmania and Melbourne.
By the timo tho fresh crop of mutton
birds is being eaten Mt Melbourne the
adult parents, with perhaps n certain
percentage of the young ones that have
escaped the catchers, are returning %
their old haunts. occupying the old and
scratching new nests on the Farallone
islands. Here the birds are practically
nnmolested. and it may thus be said.
with some basis in reason, that the Cal
afornla coast is supplying the Australian
coasters with their edible sea fowl.
1t is true, of course, that the petrol
finds other quiet nesting places besides
she islands off the California coast. but
it is also true that Catalina. the Santa
Barbara channel islands and the Faral-
ZONES are their chief rookeries on this
coast, and that at certain seasons these
islands are entirely deserted by them,
while the islands off Tasmania and the
southern coast of Australia then swarm
with tbem.-San Francisco Chronicle.
Up In the Morning.
The servant Question wOnlI he easiiv