Buller. — Notes on Neiv Zealand Birds. 79 



irregularly about the rocks and the hummocks of Azorella, 

 and filling the air with their call. The note much resembles 

 the cooing of pigeons, consisting of three short notes re- 

 peated in rapid succession and followed by two long ones, 

 thus : ' Kuk-kuk-kuk-coo-coo.' They seemed rarely to fly 

 over the water, but to confine themselves to the neighbourhood 

 of their burrows, sometimes alighting and again taking wing, 

 very much as if there were legions of bats inhabiting the hill. 

 I never succeeded in satisfying myself as to the object of this 

 constant flight during the night, although I spent much time 

 in watching them, since, so far as my observation extended, 

 there were no night-flying insects whatever upon the island, 

 nor did the structure of the stomachs of these birds seem 

 fitted to an insect diet. The burrows are excavated beneath 

 the mounds of an umbelliferous plant which abounds on the 

 Kerguelen hillside {Azorella selago, Hook.), growing in dense 

 masses of often several feet in diameter. The holes usually 

 run straight inward for a foot or more, then turn sharply to 

 the right or left, parallel with the hillside, thence downward, 

 often doubling once or twice upon themselves, and communi- 

 cating with other entrances. At the bottom is an enlarged 

 cavity, lined with pine-root fibres, twigs, ferns, or leaves of the 

 'Kerguelen tea' (Accena affinis, Hook.), and quite dry. Here 

 the single egg is to be found, always quite covered with dry 

 powdered earth or the leaves above mentioned. The diameter 

 of the burrows at their entrance is about that of a man's wrist. 

 Upon our first arrival two birds, male and female, were usually 

 found in each burrow during the day. After they began to 

 fly, however, but a single one was to be found with the egg, 

 usually, but not always, the female. When set free in the 

 day-time, the mode of flight was irregular, as if the light were 

 confusing to the bird. They always alighted in the water, 

 after flying a mile or so. The noise of their calling was in- 

 cessant during the night, coming quite as often from the 

 burrows as from the air, but became much less frequent after 

 the middle of November, from which I infer that the call is 

 connected with the season of pairing. The egg is white, single, 

 and measures T9-2in. by Tfo-l-ooin. The first egg was 

 found the 23rd October, although doubtless they begin to lay 

 earlier. A young bird covered with slate-coloured down was 

 found the 12th November, and frequently thereafter. The 

 traveller who should visit Kerguelen's Island only during i 1 

 day, returning to his ship every night, might easily fail to 

 observe the presence of these birds at all, since, in the nei h 

 bourhood of their burrows, they are exclusively nocturnal 

 in their habits, being perhaps the very latest to appear after 

 nightfall. They are, however, often seen at sea during the 

 day, many hundreds of miles from land." 



