24 MUTTON BIRDS 



or in occupation only, became more noisy and 

 began to call at more frequent intervals. Our 

 trampling, too, as we moved abont the perfor- 

 ated peat seemed to excite or disturb these cave 

 dwellers to a greater degree. 



As the light waned this restlessness inci'eased 

 till with the earliest inflight of returning birds a 

 murmur and wail arose from every occupied 

 hole. 



We were fortunate in obtaining our first view 

 of the petrel flight under circumstances favour- 

 able to eye and ear. The weather had improved, 

 the skies were clear, and, except for the 

 expectant break and the recurrent silence of 

 each wave's ebb, all was still. About seven the 

 earliest of the Kuaka began to arrive; at first 

 here a bird and there a bird ; then almost at once 

 it began to hail Kuaka, then to sleet Kuaka, and 

 lastly to snow Kuaka. They reached the island 

 in dozens, scores, hundreds, thousands, hundreds 

 of thousands, and I verily believe perhaps in 

 millions. At first they hurtled themselves in 

 like hailstones, then later fell with some degree 

 of regard to their safety, and lastly lit softly as 

 snow and with hardl}^ a rustle. 



Although standing on a conspicuous spot on a 

 rise in open ground and guarding my head and 

 face I was struck by Kuaka eight times in a few 

 minutes. They were dropping thickly into the 

 vines and nettles, the foliosa grass, the soft bare 

 ground, and inland and a little behind me falling 

 like ripe fruit through the branches of the scrub. 

 They were thumping, too, on the whare roof. 



I^he Kuaka never circles or hesitates, but 

 always files very fast and straight in from the 

 sea, but the final drop is vertical or not a pane of 



