888 NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



at length we retiuTied to our tent, pitched near the wa.ter's edge, but 

 still among the bushes, and all night long as I lay trying to sleep I heard 

 the cooing and cackling of innumerable birds feeding their young in 

 their subten-anean homes, some of them apparently within a yard of 

 my eai'. At length I fell asleep, and before I awoke, at six o'clock in 

 tlio morning, there was not a bird to^ be seen on the island. All the 

 old Petrels had long ago sped away to tlicir distant feeding places. I 

 regi-etted that I had not witnessed their morning exit. In its ,way it 

 is as striking as their homeward journey. For, as these bii-ds cannot 

 fly off tlie ground, especially in the long grass, each one has to walk 

 either to the sea shore or else to the top of some rock before it can take 

 its flight. In some cases this journey must liave meant a^ distance of 

 many hunch-ed yards. Mr. Davies relates in his paper, read in 1846, 

 that the sealers showed him the maamer in which they caught the old 

 birds for the sake of their feathers, stopping up all the tracks they made 

 except one, which led to a pit into which they fell, and were suffocated 

 by those that crowded after them. I am thankful to say this custom 

 does not obtain at the present time. On pvery occasion when I could 

 take the opportunity, I used to take up my position upon the rookery 

 to watch for the wonderful, silent rush of birds after dark. It never 

 ceased tO' chann as well as astonish." 



Dr. Montgomery summed up with several sound suggestions, 

 principally that the Govermnent should resume possession of the smaller 

 islands where the birds breed, that have been leased; that every person 

 wlio " birds " should be licensed ; and that the birding time should be 

 regulated. 



I shall now give briefly some of my observations and description of 

 the " rookeries " on Phillip Islaaid, Western Port-, Victoria, where 1 

 enjoyed my first and last experiences among the dusky crowds of Mutton 

 Birds. The localities visited by the birds are Cape Wollomai, the 

 Narrows, and McCaflie's Reef on that island ; the former, however, is 

 the recognised breeding place, where biUTOWS extend for miles along 

 the coast. 



My fu-st trip was in November, 1884, in company with two field 

 natui-ahst friends — Messrs. Alex. Borthwick, junr., and Ed. Cornwall. 

 I remember the year well, because it was the last occasion we had the 

 23rd — ^the anniversary of the " Proclamation of the Constitution of 

 the Colony of Victoria " — as a Government holiday. On the 22nd, 

 fisherman Jolui Robinson took charge of us at Hastings, whence 

 we had a meixy run in the " Ocean Bird '■ — a boat .well named for such 

 an outing — to Cape Wollomai. We aa-rived on the Ca]x: about mid- 

 day. A full accoiuit of tliis most instructive trip appeared in " The 

 Australasian," 31st January, 1885. 



Out of our boat's sails we constructed a tent in a snug sandy x-ovc 

 under Red Point, on tlie northern side of the Cape. It was a cliajTn- 

 ingly sheltered nook, and siUToimdcd immediately in the reai- with high 

 sind liumniocks, clothed with fonis and other scnib. 



Wo commenced to work in real earnest. Having anned oui-selves 

 each witli a crook, i.e., a thin tea-tree stick about seven feet Jong, with 

 a portion of sheep fencing-wire doubled and attached to the cud in the 



