^°'i9?P] STUART-SUTHERLAXI), Round the Lamp. 55 



lutely powerless to resist the attracticjn is very evident. To take 

 a typical case, what I always refer to as "a bird night" — namely, 

 the night of December 6th, 1921, or, perhaps, more correctly, I 

 should say the early morning of December 7th. 



The weather for this particular day and night was logged as 

 'AV'ind, S.E. to X.E. ; very light, with thick, misty rain, to dense 

 fog." I reached the lighthouse at midnight ( niy watch was from 

 midnight to daylight), and very few birds were about, though 

 their shrill cries could be heard as they flew around below, and 

 only an occasional crash against the windows told of the thicken- 

 ing and closing in of the fog. 



At about 1 a.m., following five or six loud crashes, 1 went out 

 on to the balcony to see what was doing. Where the long, thin 

 shafts of light were broken up by the eddying clouds of mist, 

 perhaps some sixty or more yards from the tower, the flocks of 

 Petrels were wheeling swiftly rotmd and round. Suddenly, with 

 a shrill, piercing call, a bird would partially turn aside, and fly 

 rapidly toward the windows. The bewildered creature could be 

 seen quite jilainly as it came nearer, struggling desperately to 

 turn aside; but its efforts were of no avail: it crashed against 

 the iron frame of one of the windows, and was instantly killed. 

 I picked up the bird as it dropped down on to the balcony, and 

 found it was a Mottled Petrel (Pterodroma inexpectata), a 

 species somewhat rare here, and of which I have secured only 

 five specimens in three years. 



Climbing the ladder to the coping around the lantern itself, 

 I saw seven Grey-backed Storm Petrels (Garrodia nereis), only 

 one of which was apparently injured, the unlucky one having 

 broken its wing. The birds were crashing in rapidly now. Broad- 

 billed Dove-Petrels (Prion z'ittatiis) being by far the most plen- 

 tiful. Xine of these struck the panes in less than half that mim- 

 ber of minutes, and of this nine, two were killed outright, and 

 three were badly injured. 



Curiously, very few birds are injured about the head. Of all 

 the specimens of various species which I have dissected in three 

 years, I have noted only about a dozen, and these were mostly 

 Mutton-birds (Pitffinus griseif;). The injuries were broken 

 wings, broken legs, badly smashed bodies, or, much more rarely, 

 broken necks. 



Sitting inside the tower, one can tell by the sound of the crash 

 the species to which the unlucky bird belongs. I cannot record 

 that the windows have been broken on any occasion, which fact 

 is somewhat surprising when one considers the great force with 

 which a ]\Iutton-bird strikes. I have been told that at the 

 Moeraki lighthouse the panes have been more than once smashed 

 by Black Swans (introduced from Australia), but although 

 these birds are sometimes observed during the day in this dis- 

 trict, none has so far been noted at night. Apart from the 

 numerous Petrels of several species, some few land birds have 

 at odd times been noted around the light, but apparently the 



