. Mutton birds and other birds . and continued to come in forabout half an hour. The numbers of their in-flight were as nothing in comparison with thefall of Kuaka at Herekopere; nor did the bigPetrels appear to be wholly in earnest. Thatnight it seemed to me that only a proportion ofthe birds hawking and skimming over theislands touched land at all. The manffiuvres of one particular MuttonBird we could closely follow. His burrow wasa few feet from the whare door, and in the dimlight cast by our fire of wet wood, still furtherdamped by the stream of rain that flowed downthe iron chimney, he co
. Mutton birds and other birds . and continued to come in forabout half an hour. The numbers of their in-flight were as nothing in comparison with thefall of Kuaka at Herekopere; nor did the bigPetrels appear to be wholly in earnest. Thatnight it seemed to me that only a proportion ofthe birds hawking and skimming over theislands touched land at all. The manffiuvres of one particular MuttonBird we could closely follow. His burrow wasa few feet from the whare door, and in the dimlight cast by our fire of wet wood, still furtherdamped by the stream of rain that flowed downthe iron chimney, he could be watchedin comfort. There, at intervals he laboured, scraping violently and throwingthe excavated dirt high enough to belodged on the tops of the tall leaves of thedripping Stilbocarp. There next morning wefound the gritty peat, the freshly-worked hole,but not the worker himself. A second days exploration of the island con-firmed the impression that the Mutton BirdsAvere not yet breeding in bulk; perhaps, owing PLATE AND OTHER BIRDS 35 to the utterly saturated condition of the peat,could not do so. The proportion of holes sliewing signs of usewas far short of even half the numbers of birdsseen on the wing. The inunense majority ofthe tmuiel entrances were slimy and leaf-blocked. On the other hand it was impossibleto mistake the holes in use, the peat scrapedout and lying everywhere on the Stilbocarpleaves. Our second evening was spent on a level ofpeat thickly bored with h(^les, nearly bare oftrees, and high on the island. There or there-abouts accordingly we ensconsed ourselves, farapart enough at any rate for me to know thatI could not be disturbed. There is no greateroffence than even in the far distance to hear acomrade sneeze and to know that the wholeforest is alert and suspicious. The very stillestof mates should, when space allows, never beless than half a mile distant, but in any case acorpse is as a companion preferable to a man. Even clad in sweater, coat
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidmuttonbirdso, bookyear1914
