12 MUTTON BIRDS 



hut where we camped, and it was magnificent 

 in a heavy sea, to listen to the growl and rumble 

 of these pebbles, tossed and boiling in the surf. 



Herekopere is a favourite breeding resort of 

 Petrels of many kinds, the surface possessing 

 attributes not apparently to be found in such 

 perfection on the neighbouring islands. Per- 

 haps the blanket of peat may be more deep, 

 perhaps the granite grit of a more porous 

 character. Petrels, at any rate, breed on it in 

 hundreds of thousands, and comparatively 

 neglect equally suitable looking islands,, 

 distant but half a mile, and a mile. The 

 character of its soil varies with the contour of 

 each part. On the flat uplands it is almost pure 

 peat ; on the steep slopes and where scrub grows> 

 there is an admixture of leaf mould, and on the 

 crumbling face of the granite cliffs it is chiefly 

 decomposing schist. Everywhere the land is 

 exceedingly fertile, greasy with oil and bird 

 manure, and enriched with centuries of moulted 

 down. Immense numbers of birds, too, perish 

 from time to time, as for instance when to my 

 knowledge in 1911 scores of thousands of Kuaka 

 in the down died of starvation. 



Each season also multitudes of alighting birds 

 are, like Absalom, caught by the head in the- 

 forks of trees, or snared by the wing or foot in 

 the tangles of black vine. 



Although over a quarter of its surface light 

 bush grows, there is not one large tree on the 

 island. The average height of the Herekopere 

 scrub is twenty or twenty-five feet, and 

 the mixed species of which it is composed, prefer 

 the centre and more sheltered parts. These low 

 woods tail off usuallv into thickets of the- 



