Chap, viii.] HABITS OF SIIEATII-r.ILLS. 183 



knocked over in that way, or bowled over with a big stone, as 

 they will sit quietly and allow half a dozen stones, as big as 

 themselves almost, to be thrown at them. 



At length, only after being narrowly missed several times, 

 they take flight, and make off, uttering their harsh note many 

 times in succession. If a bird be knocked over with a stick, it 

 is usually only stunned, since the Sheath-bills are very tenacious 

 of life. If a bird thus caught be tied by the leg with a string 

 and allowed to flutter on the rocks, in front of one as one sits, 

 the neighbouring sheath-bills will come at once to fight with 

 it and peck it, and can be knocked over in numbers. When 

 courting one another, the birds show all the attitudes of pigeons, 

 the male bowing his head up and down and strutting, making 

 a sort of cooing noise. 



The birds eat seaweed and shell-fish, mussels and limpets, 

 besides acting as scavengers, as already mentioned. They carry 

 quantities of the limpet and mussel shells up to the clefts orf 

 holes under the rocks which they frequent. They readily feedt 

 in confinement, and we had several on board the ship, running 

 about quite at home. One of them established itself in one of 

 the cutters for a short time, and used to take a fly round during 

 the voyage to Heard Island and return again to the ship. 



The birds, though usually to be seen running on the rocks, 

 can fly remarkably well, and their flight is like that of a pigeon. 

 I have seen them flying at a great height about the cliffs of 

 Christmas Harbour. 



A Tern {Sterna virgata ?), the " Mackerel-bird," " King-bird," 

 or " Kinger " of sealers, nests on the ground amongst the grass, 

 laying a single egg, just like that of other terns. When a nest 

 is approached the old birds are very bold, and fly round the 

 head of the intruder, uttering a sharp cry. Their young are 

 brown and remarkably like a thrush at first glance, were it not 

 for the web feet. When I saw one for the first time I thought 

 a Land-bird had been found in Kerguelen, but such certainly 

 does not exist except the Sheath-bill, if it can be considered as 

 such. It is, however, worthy of note here, that in Antipodes 

 Island, which lies south-east of New Zealand and a little nearer 

 the South Pole than Kerguelen's Land, paroquets are abun- 

 dant, although the island is covered with tussock,* and without 

 trees. 



The Gull {Lams domiiiicanus) nests also on the open ground 

 amongst grass tufts, and the birds breed in considerable flocks 

 together, choosing often some dry place on the lower slopes of 



* "Notes on the Geology of the Outlying Islands of New Zealand. 

 Reported by Dr. Hector, F.R.S." Trans. N. Zealand Institute, Vol. II., 

 1869, p. 176. 



