AND OTHEE BIRDS 15 



The whole island smelt of birds, and with the 

 loosening of the dry flax fastening of the whare 

 door it was immediately apparent how numerous 

 they must be. The hut floor was strewn with 

 the bodies of Petrels that had dropped down the 

 great open chimney and been unable to escape. 

 Their carcases were not in any degree offensive, 

 perhaps because of extreme inanition. None of 

 them, moreover, were flyblown; indeed, I do not 

 recollect, either on this occasion or later, a blow 

 fly on Herekopere. 



On the island, birds of many species were both 

 very numerous and very tame. In the hut itself 

 a pair of Robins had built, and never before had 

 I been able to identify so many species in so 

 short a time. During our six hours on the island 

 I noted twenty different kinds, the Wax Eye, 

 Black-backed Gull, Kittiwake, the Sea Swallow, 

 Tui, Yellow Breast Tit, Pied Shag, and another 

 species of Shag, Pigeon, Fern Bird, and Sea 

 Hawk. 



We got a Harrier's nest composed entirely of 

 the skeletons of the detached wings of Kuaka 

 fledglings. 



The Long-tailed Cuckoo was very plentiful 

 and very noisy. Its screech at this time of the 

 year, almost, as it were, spat forth, so vehement 

 was the utterance, and sometimes it was 

 answered from a distance by a note not unlike 

 a rapid, low tapping or hammering. 



About the tall alien mallows and wild oats and 

 sow thistles growing in the vicinity of the hut 

 many Yellow-fronted Parrakeets were feeding. 

 One Weka was heard, but for some reason or 

 another the breed do not on Herekopere display 

 the interest shewn elsewhere in man and his 

 belongings; they are very scarce certainty, but 



