Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/135

ting on the water, waiting to take their turns. We first discovered the whale by the fowls; for indeed I did never see so many fowls at once in my life before, their numbers being inconceivably great: they were of divers sorts, in bigness, shape and colour. Some were almost as big as geese, of a grey colour, with white breasts, and with such bills, wings, and tails. Some were pintado-birds, as big as ducks, and speckled black and white. Some were shearwaters; some petrels; and there were several sorts of large fowls. We saw of these birds, especially pintado-birds, all the sea over from about 200 leagues distant from the coast of Brazil to within much the same distance of New Holland. The pintado is a southern bird, and of that temperate zone; for I never saw of them much to the northward of 30 degrees south. The pintado-bird is as big as a duck; but appears, as it flies, about the bigness of a tame pigeon, having a short tail, but the wings very long, as most sea-fowls have; especially such as these that fly far from the shore, and seldom come nigh it; for their resting is sitting afloat upon the water; but they lay, I suppose, ashore. There are three sorts of these birds, all of the same make and bigness, and are only different in colour. The first is black all over: