22 MUTTON BIRDS 



sticks coated and crusted with dirt. The 

 quantity of material used in nidification was 

 dependent we thought on the condition of the 

 burrow, and from the manner in which the poor 

 material was laid in the centre of the nest 

 hollow it was evident that the egg alone was 

 cared for. There was no attempt at lining the 

 remainder of the burrow's base, and the sitting 

 bird squatted on wet and often soaked peat. 



In the excej)tionally rainy season of 1911 

 many of the holes were woefully wet and the 

 roofs and sides of the breeding chambers in the 

 gritty sticky condition of undried plaster work. 

 The birds' tail feathers were draggled and 

 saturated, and incubation must have been a 

 rheumatic business indeed. 



We could not discover that any of the small, 

 gentle-natured Kuaka were yet sitting. At this 

 date during the day time most of their little 

 burrows were vacant ; only in a small proportion 

 were to be found either a single egg or two birds 

 together. When a pair were together I took the 

 joint occupancy as the earliest stage of house- 

 keeping — settling in, as it were. 



There is something very engaging about the 

 little Kuaka, and McLean and I became very 

 jDartial to him, just as folk feel partiality in an 

 extreme degree to a friend who has something 

 a little ludicrous as well as lovable about him. 

 The little fellow was always so fussy and 

 agitated when, on the high seas, we ran into one 

 of his parties scuttling along the wave tops and 

 plunging with such undignitied haste and as if 

 just in time — only just in time — to save a sprawl 

 and somersault. Pity, too, was a factor in our 

 affection, for to a great extent it is to be feared 



