136 



THE AUSTRALIAxH MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



A fully fledged chicken and its mother in a crevice formed by a lava bubble in the basalt 

 cliff. Before leaving the nest, the young reaches a size equal to that of its parent. 



Photo — A. K. McCuUoch. 



and tail outstretched, the latter bent up- 

 ward, and then sheer oft' again as though 

 warned oft" by a sitting mate. 



The adult bird is covered with a satin- 

 like plumage which is principally white 

 in colour, but wliich in the male is suf- 

 fused with a wonderful delicate pink over 

 the whole body, leaving the head white. A 

 black eyebrow and some black-tipped fea- 

 thers near the tail, a large scarlet bill 

 and bluish legs add to the beauty of this 

 aerial dandy. Tlie steers are scarlet, and 

 their curious form and rarity cause them 

 t(. be somewhat sought after for millinery 

 purposes. "Tailing" therefore provides 

 both thrills and profit for some of the 

 better eliinbers among the island boys 

 who annually scour the more accessible 

 cliffs in search of the nesting birds. As 

 these usually sit with their heads in the 

 dark and their tails projecting from the 

 cavities, the steers can be plucked out al 

 most without disturbing their owners. 



They are then carried in the climber's 

 hatband until lie retui'us to safer levels. 

 The young Boatswain Bird, as in uiany 

 other sea bii'ds, differs considerably in ap- 

 pearance from its parents. Each feather 

 of the upper surfaces is marked with one 

 to three broad bars of black, which offer 

 a striking contrast to the pure white of 

 the rest of the plumage. The bill is 

 : ]aty-])lue, and the long tail feathers are 

 undeveloped. During the earlier part of 

 our stay on the island, we found all the 

 lu'sts tenanted by birds with only eggs or 

 newly hatched young, and as we wanted a 

 young but fully Hedged specimen to show 

 the sjjcckled plumage, we had to pay them 

 periodical visits lo ensure securing one 

 with just these characters. A violent gale 

 churned up the seas to such a height that 

 several chickens we had hoped to collect 

 v/ere waslied out of their nests, but others 

 were found after some little search, which 

 we visited regularly, and watched the de- 



