30 MUTTON BIRDS 



through fleets of Kuaka heading towards the 

 island. As the light failed they could be dimly 

 seen gathering in scores of thousands from west 

 and north and south. From what distance and 

 for how long, I wonder, had they come, and with 

 what stock of patience had they endured the 

 slowly fading southern twilight. 



By our watches we knew that at any moment 

 their companies might take wing, but when the 

 time arrived there was nothing dramatic in the 

 rise of the birds ; rather it seemed that party got 

 up after party, and just before black darkness 

 blotted out the sea, its expanse was to the limit 

 of vision covered with innumerable flights 

 of the little birds trailing low to the water and 

 about to revisit their island trvsts. 



