52 MUTTON BIRDS 



still full of Wekas, and there I found the Robins 

 fairly plentiful before, after, and during the 

 breeding season. 



In lesser numbers they are to be found high 

 on the uplands, and indeed are probably moder- 

 ately plentiful in all the wetter, wilder, and 

 uninhabited portions of Stewart Island. 



It is on the islets that lie off Stewart Island 

 that the species should longest survive and per- 

 petuate its race ; and there, indeed, with a little 

 care and a little inspection the Robin should 

 continue to live. Even on them, however, he is 

 not perfectly safe. On many of these islets rats 

 already swarm, either having long ago swum 

 from wrecks or more recently been by chance 

 introduced from boats landing stores for the 

 Mutton Bird season. In fact, each visit to an 

 islet, of any craft bigger than a boat, carries 

 possible death to the Robin. Rats venture 

 every^vhere and intrude by every means; any 

 bait, for instance, left on board a fishing boat is 

 taken by these brutes who at night board by 

 the mooring ropes. It is easy, therefore, to sup- 

 pose that rats might be inadvertently landed, 

 and that when once established on one island 

 they might reach another and thus spread over 

 whole groups. No body, even of rats, would 

 attempt to negotiate six or eight miles of open 

 sea, yet the few hundred yards that separate 

 some of these islands would hardly deter them. 

 On the other hand the Robin may be successfully 

 acclimatised. 



I am told that birds liberated on Ulva in- 

 creased, until, upon the death of the experi- 

 menter, cats were again permitted on the island. 

 These Robins built about the out-houses and 



