THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



137 



Our artist is assisted up a rocky face. 

 Photo — A. K. iSIcCullotli. 



velopinent of the black and white feathers 

 among the white down until the latter had 

 almost disappeared. They grew in their 

 nests from the size of chickens of an or- 

 dinary fowl to that at which they equalled 

 the bulk of their parents, and, though 

 never friendly, they gradually became 

 more or less accustomed to our periodical 

 intrusions. With a very genuine dislike 

 of destroying any living thing unneces- 

 sarily, we found the final task of taking 

 their short-lived lives to be much against 

 the grain, and made sure that their de- 

 mise was both painless and instantaneous. 



Climbing the cliffs to the nests provides 

 many thrills, as the accompanying illus- 

 trations show. The volcanic rock is often 

 very rotten, and crumbles away under 

 one's feet, so that every projection af- 

 fording a hold for either hands or feet 

 must be carefully tested before reliance 

 can be placed upon it. Further, as one 

 can often easily ascend to places from 

 which it is difficult or impossible to des- 

 cend again, it is advisable that two climb- 

 ers should work together so that one may 

 help the other if necessary. A rope was 

 usually scorned, but we were occasionally 



able to reach positions, othei-wise wholly 



inaccessible, by means of long lengths of 

 manilla. By fastening the ends to two 

 bushes some distance apart and allowing 

 them to hang down to the part to which 

 we Avished to descend, we were able to 

 climl) down even smooth rocky faces, 

 while moving to the right or left as re- 

 ((uired by using the corresponding rope. 



Steady nerves and a sense of balance 

 are all-important in clift'-elim))ing, and 

 one must be ever on the alert for unsus- 

 pected dangers. On one occasion, my 

 climbing mate Troughton, while in a par- 

 ticularly dangerous position, bi'ought his 

 whole weight to bear upon a projecting 

 ledge of rock which broke away from 

 under him, and he slipped several feet 

 on the rope before he could grasp it suffi- 

 ciently firmly to save himself from a sheer 

 drop of a hundred feet onto the rocks 

 below. Further, the killmoak bushes 

 which cling to the rocky faces, or small 

 projecting rocks, often appear to the 

 most careful climber to afford a secure 

 hold, but tear away when one's full weight 

 falls upon them. At such times, thought 

 and action must be instantaneous, and we 

 more than once found ourselves with noth- 

 ing but a meagre support for one foot to 

 save us until we could regain our balance. 

 It is upon occasions like these that one 

 glances downward to the white surf, roar- 

 ing and boiling against the foot of the 

 cliff far below, and regrets that Nature 

 has not seen fit to provide us with wings 

 so that we might leap off into space, as 

 do the birds we disturb in our ascent. 



As already stated, we had not only to 

 secure the specimens required for our 

 group, but it was also necessary that our 

 artist should see and make paintings of 

 the view from the nesting site selected for 

 reconstruction, to be used in the final 

 paint-ed background of our case. Like- 

 wise, the various positions of the nesting 

 birds had to be studied by the taxiderm- 

 ists of our party. With the ever ready 

 help of our friend Stan Fenton, W3 

 selected a suitable nest about fifty feet 

 above sea-level, which was fairly acces- 

 sible to all of the party, and made a care- 

 ful study of its form and environment. 

 Photographs were taken from various 

 points of view, colour sketches prepared. 



