Habits of the Mutton-bird. 213 



with a roaring westerly gale blowing over the island. It was 

 March 1st, 1896. With watch and pocket-book I lay among 

 the birds or walked silently about, noting what I now set 

 down : — Up to 10 p.m. the underground noises continue, 

 then silence falls on the rookery. The young birds are 

 digesting ; the parents are resting ; but the latter are not 

 by any means all in the holes, for some of them come 

 out almost immediately and walk about among the long 

 grass, and many of them sleep in the open air. I stepped 

 silently about among them as they crouched on the ground : 

 in no case did they put their heads under their wings, as 

 many birds do. Often one of them walked up to my foot, 

 and the slightest movement on my part sent him scurrying 

 away like a rabbit, quite unable to Hy off the ground. The 

 moon was so bright that the rookery was almost as light as 

 day. All night long a few score of birds flitted noiselessly 

 over the rookery, just skimming the tops of the low bushes 

 and passing within a foot of my face as I lay concealed. 

 Hour after hour this graceful quadrille proceeded almost 

 without sound of wings and as from creatures absolutely 

 incapable of speech. At about 2.30 a.m. the rookery awoke. 

 Noises came from all sides ; a larger number of birds flashed 

 silently over the ground. I walked towards a sandy ridge 

 some thirty yards from the shore. Scores of birds talked up 

 to the edge, then they raised their wings right over their backs 

 till they nearly met at full stretch. They stood thus quivering 

 in the wind for a few seconds, and then launched themselves 

 into the air and were at once in fliight. Close by a bird 

 underground was sending a fountain of sand into the air 

 as he cleaned out the hole preparatory to departure. At 

 3.15 A.M. the rookery was fully awake : hundreds of birds 

 were leaving. I passed on and laid myself down within 

 eight paces of a large rock with sloping sides and watched 

 the birds as they clambered up it, and, extending their wings 

 in the manner I have described, launched themselves into 

 the air. In every case they faced the wind to perform this 

 operation. At times, indeed, they were so numerous that 

 they were jostling each other, but in perfect harmony. At 



