AND OTHER BIRDS 175 



CHAPTER XX. 

 A COMMUNITY OF THIEVES. 



jHE rock, Kane-te-toe, lies eastward of 

 the Old Neck, rather to the south of 

 Herekopere, and about eight miles 

 from Half Moon Bay. It is a mere 

 dot in the ocean expanse ; in extent, a 

 couple or three acres ; in calm, a low dark cone ; 

 in heavy seas, circled with white and scourged 

 with spray. This rock mass is not more than 

 fort}' or fifty feet above high water mark, and 

 shows the typical exfoliations of granite greatly 

 weather worn. A vast fissure has split the rock 

 into two nearly equal portions, and through this 

 chasm the seas heave and burst. The southern 

 part of the rock appears to be utterly bare ; but 

 on the larger and more elevated northern 

 portion, there is established, and probably has 

 been established for ages, a rookery of the 

 Stewart Island Shag. 



During my earliest visit to Stewart Island, I 

 had twice during January and February, been 

 out to this lonely rock, and found it on each 

 occasion thickly crowded with birds. On the 

 first expedition, a roll from the south made all 

 but circumnavigation of it, impossible. On the 

 second venture I was taken near enough to dis- 

 cover the difficulties of focussing an object even 



