45*2 MUTTON BIRDS. 



goose, and almost as good in flavour. The male 

 sits by day and the female by night, each going to 

 sea in turn to feed. As soon as the young take wing 

 they leave the islands. Their nests are two or three 

 feet under ground, and so close that it is scarcely 

 possible to walk without falling. The collection of the 

 eggs and birds, which is the business of the women, 

 is frequently attended with great risk, as venomous 

 snakes are often found in the holes. When the 

 sealers wish to catch them in large quantities they 

 build a hedge a little above the beach, sometimes 

 half a mile in lenfrth. Towards daylight, when the 

 birds are about to put to sea, the men station 

 themselves at the extremities, and their prey, not 

 being able to take flight off the ground, run down 

 towards the water until obstructed by the hedge, 

 when they are driven towards the centre, where a 

 hole about five feet deep is prepared to receive 

 them ; in this they effectually smother each other. 

 The birds are then plucked and their carcases 

 generally thrown in a heap to waste, whilst the 

 feathers are pressed in bags and taken to Laun- 

 ceston for sale.* The feathers of twenty birds 

 weigh one pound ; and the cargoes of two boats I 

 saw, consisted of thirty bags, each weighing nearly 

 thirty pounds — the spoil of eighteen thousand 

 birds ! I may add, that unless great pains are 

 taken in curing, the smell will always prevent a bed 

 made of them from beins: mistaken for one com- 

 * They now fetch 3d. a pound ; formerly the price was \s. 



