54 STUART-SUTHERLAXD, Roium the Lamp. Ti^ffuTy" 



Between v^an P'rancisco and Honolulu many Dioiiiedea iiumii- 

 tabilis and one D. iii(/ripcs were seen. These birds were smaller, 

 rather more active, and with a more irregular flight than any of 

 our species. 



What I t(Jok to he the White Tern (Gyc/is alba) was often 

 seen between f iji and Auckland. I have a note, "Most beauti- 

 ful bird, with a very irregular flight, continually checking and 

 changing direction, sometimes 100 feet up or just over the water; 

 wing beats about 120 to the minute." 



Round the Lamp 



By R. STUART-SUTHERLAXD, F.Z.S., R.A.O.U., The 

 Lighthouse,* Cape Foulwind, Westport, X.Z. 



The mcjth round ihe candle is familiar to all, but the large 

 flocks of nocturnal sea-birds, wheeling round and round the 

 lighthouse in the long, lonely watches of the night is a sight seen 

 by very few, and entirely unkn(n\n lo many. On bright, clear 

 nights the dim, shadowy forms of the Petrels are occasionally 

 seen crossing the beams of light ; not a sound is heard, although 

 the birds are as frequent then as on any thick, misty night, when 

 the shifting rays of the powerful light ap])ear as long, thin 

 shafts piercing the thickening air. 



The lighthouse stands 180 feet abijve high- water, on Puysegur 

 Point, at the south-western corner of the South Island. The 

 light it.self is a revolving one, and .shows only outward over the 

 sea; that is to say, the panes on the landward side are darkened. 

 These blind panes, which occupy about one-third of the actual 

 window area of the lantern, suddenly cutting ofl:" the light 

 dazzling a bird a])proaching the tower along the beams, save 

 many unfortunates from an untimel} end, for as the particular 

 beam of light in which the bird happens to be travelling is cut 

 off, the bird usually has time to turn aside, or at most strikes 

 the tower at an angle, and is often only slightly injured. 



In circling around the lighthouse, the bewildered birds usually 

 folhnv the revolutions of the light, though sometimes when the 

 mist closes in during the early part of the night — meaning that 

 is within two hous or so of sunset — the various Petrels are 

 noted flying toward the tower from a southerly or south- 

 westerly direction — the direction of Windsor Point and the 

 Solander Islands. 



It is rather diflicult to offer any exi>lanation as to the manner 

 in which the light attracts the birds, buf that they are abso- 



* Until recently at the lighthouse, Puysepiir Pt. . N. Z. 



