774 THE BIRDS OF LOHD HOWK AND NORFOLK ISLANDS, 



have very liaiidsome pluiuage, make a noise like one man calling' 

 to aiiothei-, and they pronounce the word ' yaho ' very distinctly. 

 . . . There are also a species of birds which burrow in the ground 

 like rabbits, where they hatch their eggs and rear their yountj; 

 they are web-footed, which is rather extraordinary, and their bill 

 is like that of other sea-fowl, l)ut they have not the least fishy 

 taste, and their flesh is very fine. These birds never quit their 

 holes till sunset, from which time until midnight the air is full 

 of them; they afforded us many fresh meals." Immediately suc- 

 ceeding. Captain Hunter was wrecked on Norfolk Island, and in 

 the same work he write3(p. 181) "In the month of April we 

 found that Mount Pitt, which is the highest ground on the Island, 

 was during the night crowded with birds. This hill is as full of 

 holes as any rabbit warren; in these holes at this season these 

 birds burrow and make their nests, and as they are an aquatic 

 bird they are, during the daytime, frequently at sea in search of 

 food. As soon as it is dark they hover in vast flocks over the 

 ground where their nests are. Our people(I mean seamen, 

 marines and convicts) who are sent out in parties to provide birds 

 for the general benefit, arrive upon the ground soon after dusk, 

 where they light small fires which attract the attention of the 

 birds, and they drop down out of tlie air as fast as the people 

 can take them up and kill them. When they are upon the 

 ground the length of their wings prevents their being able to rise,, 

 and until they can ascend an eminence they are unable to re- 

 cover the use of their wings. For this purpose nature has pro- 

 vided them with a strong, sharp and hooked bill, and in their heel 

 a sharp spur, with the assistance of which, and the strength of 

 their bill, they have been seen to climb the stalk of a tree suffici- 

 ently high to throw themselves upon the wing. . . . The}' are 

 webb-footed, and of a rusty black colour. . . . They lay but 

 one egg, and that is full as large as a duck's egg. They were at 

 the end of May as plentiful as if none had been caught, although 

 for two months before there had not been less taken than from 

 two to three thousand birds every night. Most of the females 

 t;iken in May were with ege, which really fills the whole cavity 



