Vol. VI. 



1907 



1 Henry, Paradise Duck at Resolution Island, N .Z . 17^ 



eastward instead of south as they always started away. They 

 turned in over the end of Pigeon Island, and went up a wooded 

 valley on Resolution Island. Some days later I was corning 

 home in the launch, and saw the female flying high, goino- for 

 food. I knew she would not be long, so stopped and waited, 

 and in a little while the pair came back, flew right past me, and 

 turned round a point out of my sight. I turned back, expectino- 

 to see the drake on the beach near the nest, but had to go over 

 a mile before I saw him at the mouth of Earshell Creek. Then 

 all my good opinion of the duck's judgment disappeared, for I 

 knew that place to be full of Wood-J4ens. However, I brought 

 down her food-box and set it up on a stump, where she could 

 see it, so that she could stay there to mind the eggs; also 

 scattered some wheat on the beach for the mate. I wanted to 

 get a photograph of the nest, so went down again, snared all the 

 Wood-Hens to be found, and waited a long time without a sign 

 of the duck. Her mate stayed there hunting up the wheat 

 among the gravel. On the i8th November, just a month after 

 she started hatching, as I thought, I was coming home again, 

 and went round that way, stayed to catch a iev^j fish, and by 

 good luck saw the pair coming. The duck gave a twirl, and 

 went down under a cliff nearly a quarter of a mile before she 

 came to the beach, and the drake sat on a rock at the mouth of 

 a glen, and by the time I got there the duck had disappeared 

 and the drake had flown away to his beach. What a swindle, 

 after all my trouble bringing the food and catching the poor 

 Wood-Hens ! However, she may have intended that beach for 

 feeding the ducklings, and a good place it is. That beach is 

 about one of the best for stranded mysis, which the young ones 

 will largely depend on for food. The sound is full of it now, 

 but the weather is very bad. 



Next day the duck came in a great hurry, called for her mate, 

 and off again without stopping. She must have covered up the 

 little ones and left them in the nest, knowing that she could not 

 take them out and protect them for a moment without his 

 assistance. The following day was so stormy and wet that I was 

 indoors and pitied the poor ducklings. The next morning was 

 little better, but I went down in the launch. There was no sign 

 of the Ducks, but I had a long look for the nest without finding 

 it. There were plenty of benches and clefts about the rocks and 

 plenty of Penguins' holes, with their young ones, under rocks 

 and the roots of trees. A Wood-Hen would not go into a hole 

 if there were any chance of a Penguin in it — it might get its 

 head crushed — and I think the duck's eggs were quite safe in 

 any of the holes about there. Many birds breed near others for 

 protection, and that is probably why the duck chose that place 

 for her nest. While I was looking for the nest the wind and 

 sea got up so that the little engine had a struggle to take me up 



