42 MUTTON BIRDS 



burrows occupied by this breed eggs much 

 incubated were now to be had. Many, but not 

 all, of the Titi Wainui were sitting on an egg. 

 The young of the Parara were by this time 

 seven or eight weeks old large, heavy, and 

 densely covered with down. 



The roof and walls of the chamber of one 

 particular Parara chick photographed by us 

 were quite grey with the scurf of the down and 

 sprouting feathers. The nestling big enough to 

 show fight possessed a bill sufficiently strong to 

 administer a severe pinch. 



At night every bird on the island seemed to 

 be wailing and calling, but the burrow sounds 

 were almost impossible to locate and harder still 

 to apportion, for the more densely-settled dis- 

 tricts were tunnelled like the foundations of a 

 great city, and different breeding chambers had 

 often, I am convinced, a common entrance. 



By ten o 'clock a roar went up from the island 

 the blended chorus of an enormous multi- 

 tude of birds, a bleating, crying, humming wail of 

 four species conjoined and so overfilling the air 

 with sound that, as before, I woke with the peace 

 of dawn. 



To recapitulate, the Parara is the earliest 

 breeding Petrel to be found about the northern 

 portion of Stewart Island, and his nesting- 

 season is spread over many weeks; then comes, 

 with a season also extending over many weeks, 

 the Titi Wainui. The Kuaka lays its two eggs 

 about mid-October, and I believe its breeding 

 season is much more restricted in time. The 

 Mutton Bird is the last of the Petrels mentioned 

 in this book to lay in bulk. I have, however, no 

 doubt but that the few dozen individuals of this 



