AND OTHER BIRDS 25 



glass in the whare windows could have remained 

 intact. 



The difference in the sound of the fall of the 

 early, late, and latest Kuaka may perhaps be 

 ascribed to the altering light : on the other hand 

 it may be caused by the impetuosity of affection, 

 the first comers ])eing perhaps the mates of the 

 single birds in lonely occu}»ation of their holes; 

 the next lot those arriving without intent to 

 select at once: and the last detachment feeling 

 in a lesser degree the influence of love and 

 spring. 



This amazing influx of Kuaka continued for 

 about half an hour, although for long after that 

 huge parties of stragglers continued intermit- 

 tently to arrive. 



Each morning we might have gathered them 

 as the Israelites gathered from the wilderness 

 their quail ; each morning the bird-fall overnight 

 had landed Petrels in the kerosene tin used for 

 carriage of water — on one occasion there were 

 three birds in it. Every empty box flat on its 

 base contained birds. They fell do^Ti the 

 chimney, they floated in our Avater cask. 



A little later than the main body of the 

 Kuaka, the Parara and Titi AVainui ])egan to 

 reach the island in thousands, and Mutton Birds 

 perhaps in hundreds. 



The mode of landing of each of these three 

 species was less precipitate, the birds passing and 

 repassing many times over the island, circling 

 and wheeling in enormous looj)s, now clear 

 against the sky, now lost in the blackness of the 

 land. In every direction, high and low, the sky 

 was crossed by their curves, and the heavens 



