NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 88/ 



and Babel Island. These pliices ;ue nothing more than low, sandy 

 spots, from 300 to 1,200 acres in extent, with hardly a tree .(except on 

 Big Dog Island), and covered with long, yellow grass, growing up to the 

 waist. Most uninviting looking spots they appear to be. 



■' On the 3rd of ilarch I landed on Little Dog Island, and received 

 my fu"st introduction to these most interesting sea birds. At 6 p.m. 

 not a Mutton Bird was in sight. Indeed, dvu-ing the fortnight that I was 

 cruising about in a boat I never saw a Petrel in the day time anywhere. 

 It is their habit to fly away to sea ven- early in the morning toi distances 

 forty and fifty miles away, retiu'iiing only when it is dusk. Whether 

 they have long ago cleared the immediately siUTOunding waters of the 

 food they require I cannot say ; but it is a sm-prising fact that not one 

 of the old birds is ever visible in the neighbom-laood of their young 

 throughout the day. Walking about on a rookeiy is a matter of no 

 mean difficulty. The ground, always loose and powdeiy, is evei^where 

 perforated with holes from two to three feet deep, about the diameter 

 of a rabbit biuTow. Among the long gi-ass it is almost impossible to 

 prevent ciiishing down the sand and endangeiing the lives of ^the yoimg 

 bii-ds by suffocation, at the same time falling headlong oneself. Just 

 at sunset I was invited to go some two hundred yards up on to the 

 higher groiuid — the island is only two hundred acres in extent — in order 

 to see the birds come in. I shall never, forget that evening as long as 

 I live. The sun was setting, leaving a broad belt of crimson on the 

 western horizon, and soon the suiTounduig sea became almost invisible. 

 Not a sound was heard except the mstling of the gi-ass in the wind. 

 There was no indication that there was a living thing on the island. 

 There were no cries of ssa birds. The stillness was wonderful. Presently 

 a single dark-winged fomiiflitted across the island and vanished again into 

 the gloom. In another ten seconds thousands upon thousands of birds 

 seemed to spring like magic up out of the darkness from every quarter 

 without warning or ciy of any kind. And now backwards and forwards 

 before my dazzled sight I saw these countless dark shadows shooting 

 with lightning rapidity athwart the last of the evening light. Still 

 no articulate soimd was heard. Nothing but the whistle as i^ of bullet 

 after bullet through the air, bewildering one with the sense of numbers 

 and of mysterious rushing life. Repeatedly a biid would dash within 

 an inch of my head, and then wheel like liglitning to one side to escape 

 a collision. So imminent seemed the danger of {irriving at home minus 

 an ear or a nose from contact with a sharp beak that I was fain to crouch 

 down in the long grass to escape an .accident. To sit down on the 

 ground on that particular island was possible because there were no 

 snakes. Nothing would have induced me ,to have taken up the same 

 position in the mouth of March had I been upon the island called 

 ' Hvimmocky.' But of this hereafter. The minutes pa.ssed, and still 

 this dizzy, wliirling, hurly-biu'ly of creatures continued — silent, and 

 even awe-inspiring. Sometimes tliey came in squadi-ons of himdreds, 

 sometimes by tens. But still they came; each bird after a turn or two 

 sinking with unemng instinct on to its hole, finding it in the long gi-ass 

 and in the darkness with a certainty which was tnily marvellous. It 

 was difficult to tear oneself away from this wonderful spectacle. But 



