398 Mr. R. Elwes on the Short-tailed Petrel. 



was a Hindoo woman from Calcutta, active and industrious, who 

 kept it in good order. The other men had native wives or 

 'gins' as they called them, from Australia and Van Diemen's 

 Land. 



Their original occupation was sealing; for these islands formerly 

 swarmed with Seals. In the course of time these animals 

 became exterminated ; and now their principal livelihood is de- 

 rived from the Mutton-birds which are found here in incredible 

 numbers. 



These birds, called also Sooty or Short-tailed Petrels [Puf' 

 firms brevicaudis, Gould, B. Austr. vii. pi. 56), have such long 

 wings, that, like the Albatros, the largest of their tribe, they 

 have great difficulty in rising from the ground when settled; 

 and it is this peculiarity that makes their capture so easy. They 

 build in holes in the ground. The islands which they frequent 

 are burrowed over in all directions just like a rabbit-warren. They 

 arrive in huge flocks about the 21st of September, generally to 

 the day, to prepare their holes and clean them out. There is 

 tremendous fighting and quarrelling for these holes. When the 

 birds have arrived a few days, their tracks or pathways begin to 

 be apparent, or, as the sealers say, " they begin to show their 

 runs '," for they go down to the sea every morning. The sealers 

 then dig a large pit in one of the main runs with small fences 

 on each side leading down to it like a funnel. When all is 

 ready, some morning at day-break, when the birds come out of 

 their holes, they are driven down these runs into the pitfall. 

 ^' We rushes 'em down. Sir, and they all tumbles over one 

 another into the hole," was the way the men expressed it. They 

 crowd down and fall in by hundreds, crushing and smothering 

 each other until the pit is full, when the men break down the 

 fence at the sides and let the rest escape. They generally take 

 2000 or 2200 in each drive. The men then jump into the hole 

 and set to work to pick them, pulling off the body-feathers and 

 stuffing them into bags and throwing the carcasses out of the 

 hole. This lasts till noon. It is hard work ; and before the end 

 of the season their nails sometimes come ofl' from the continual 

 phicking. It takes the feathers of 25 birds to make a pound, 

 which sells at Launceston for twopence ; but Tucker, his wife, and 



