BuLLEB. — On the Ornithology of Neio Zealand. 199 



ground were unfledged birds covered with a thick growth of 

 down of snowy whiteness. These were to be seen all over 

 the ground, either squatting beside an old bird that was 

 incubating or strutting about the ground in a very important 

 fashion. In the hollow I have described the nests were so 

 crowded together that it was a matter of difficulty to step 

 between them. The nests are carefully formed, looking like in- 

 verted shallow clay basins, with a depression in the centre filled 

 with soft seaweed, aiid measuring about 18in. in diameter. 



As I have said, we arrived just as the old birds bad 

 completed their fishing operations for the day. They were 

 crowded close together on the rising ground on both sides of 

 the nesting-place, each of them doubtless stewing in his crop 

 a supply of fish to be regurgitated later on for the benefit of 

 the young birds, who were manifesting the utmost impatience 

 tor their supper by a continuous " swirling " cry like that of 

 young shags. We sat down about a dozen yards from the 

 breeding-ground and watched operations with much interest 

 for some time, without apparently causing any alarm to the 

 birds, but, on our attempting to get nearer, the Gannets not 

 actually sitting on the nests or attending to the young ones 

 rose in a body and filled the air with the graceful sweeping of 

 their black pinions. They were so closely packed together 

 as they rose that it seemed to us quits a marvel that they 

 could vibrate their wings so rapidly and at such close quar- 

 ters without coming into actual contact with one another. 

 Having once risen into the air, the birds continued their 

 hovering overhead during the whole of our visit, and we could 

 see them still on the wing, long afterwards, as we rode home- 

 wai'ds along the beach. It was certainly a very pretty sight, 

 and quite an unexpected one, for visitors at an earlier period 

 of the day find only the incubators or the birds that happen 

 to be at home performing their domestic duties. We walked 

 boldly down into the breeding-ground and found that, as a 

 rule, old birds sitting on newly-hatched chicks would not 

 vacate their post of duty till compelled to do so, striking 

 fiercely with their bills at the feet of any intruder. I switched 

 one in the face with my pocket-handkerchief, but she showed 

 fight and refused to leave the nest, so I left her there. I 

 noticed that where the nest contained only an egg they wei'e 

 not so devoted, always rising in the air as soon as we had 

 approached within a yard or two. There were many dead 

 young birds strewed about the breeding-ground, in various 

 stages of decomposition, and from these decaying objects 

 there came an unpleasant smell, but there was nothing dis- 

 agreeable in the nursery itself. Everything seemed well- 

 ordered and under excellent discipline. In protecting its 

 naked nestling the old bird would cover it up with her broad 



