Cory’s shearwater (Puffinus kuhli)
Original title: Cagarra (Puffinus kuhli)
Cory's shearwater, a native seabird breeding on Madeira's cliffs and hunted chiefly on the Desertas and Selvagens, where some 18,000 young are taken yearly and sold salted to the poor.
A native web-footed bird of the family Procellariidae. It is a seabird that migrates between October and November, returning at the end of February or the beginning of March, and breeds in June. It then lays a single, entirely white egg on the steep coastal cliffs, which is ready to hatch after a month. It is hunted on all the islands, but it is chiefly on the Desertas (‘deserted islands’) and the Savage Islands (Selvagens) that its capture becomes profitable. At present the number of young birds taken each year on the Savage Islands by men from São Gonçalo and Caniço (‘reed’), who go there for that particular purpose, averages 18,000. Once salted, the cagarra is brought to Madeira, where it is sold mainly to the poorer classes, who value it highly despite the marked fishy aftertaste and oily character of its flesh. The hunters of the Savage Islands also call it pardela, as do the Spaniards of the Canary Islands.
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Place
Places mentioned · 05
1 Abroad
- Canary Islands
Spain. Canary Islanders also call the bird pardela.
The Canary Islands are the archipelago neighbouring Madeira, with disputed accounts of their discovery. Tradition holds that their Béthencourt king sold them to Prince Henry in exchange for lands in Madeira. The Elucidário notes many contacts between the two archipelagos, including scientific visits, the Orfeão Madeirense's tour in May 1922 and the massacre of forty Jesuits in their waters.
- Caniço
Santa Cruz. Home parish of shearwater hunters.
Caniço is a parish in the municipality of Santa Cruz, lying on the boundary between the captaincies of Funchal and Machico. Its early settlers included Gaspar Rego, Vasco Fernandes Rego and Álvaro de Ornelas, whose family founded morgados there; its alcaide and judge were appointed by the Funchal senate. The parish includes the Garajau statue, the Jesuits' Socorro residence and the Quinta do Barão da Conceição.
- Desertas
Santa Cruz. Main hunting ground for shearwaters.
An island group near Madeira that was already separated from it at the last eruptions and shares endemic species with it. It was the main orchil-harvesting area, and Wollaston found 89 beetle species there. The islands were investigated by scientific expeditions, including the Endurance scientists in 1914.
- São Gonçalo
Funchal. Home parish of shearwater hunters.
São Gonçalo is a suburban parish at the eastern end of Funchal, created in the sixteenth century, part of whose territory was added in 1927, when it also became a julgado of the Funchal comarca. The Elucidário notes its professional embroiderers producing the finest work, its levadas, its hay supply to Funchal, its shearwater hunters, and that it was the birthplace of Padre Manuel Fernandes de Sant'Ana; it contains Alpires and the Quinta do Rochedo.
- Savage Islands
Funchal · Selvagens. Islands where about 18,000 young shearwaters are caught yearly.
A small uninhabited island group, politically part of the Madeira archipelago. The Elucidário covers its geography, geology, fauna, ownership history and legends of hidden treasure, including Shackleton's treasure plans, and notes the annual hunting of shearwaters and rabbits. It is the only remaining home of the limpet Patella vulgata and was studied by naturalists such as Lowe and Garreta.