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THE AUSTKALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



steadily in the direction of the island, and 

 as they came closer I could see the black 

 heads of the Penguins and hear their 

 barking cries. The swimming groups 

 made for several different landing places, 

 but the one immediately below me was 

 the favourite spot. As each group of per- 

 haps twenty to thirty birds reached the 

 rocks they waited, "backpedalling" until 

 the surge ran up a sloping rock, when 

 they shot forward, rolling over and over 

 in the wliite foam like currants in flour. 



thick vegetation below the lighthouse 

 quarters. 



Interesting as the Penguins were, the 

 northern islet i^resented a much more 

 animated and brilliant spectacle, for here 

 the Silver Gulls {Larus novae-hollandiae^ 

 had their great breeding ground. After 

 negotiating the stiff climb up the slippery 

 side of the neck between the two islets 

 we came upon the first group of nesting 

 birds in the "Gullery." There, amongst 

 the tussocks, in the sandv ravines, on the 



Nest of a Silver Gull, containing eggs of the rare red matation. 

 (Montague Island.) 



Plioto — A. h\ Basset Hull. 



and as the surge receded they were left 

 clutching the rock or running forward to 

 get clear of the next oncoming wave. 

 Once out of reach of the water, they 

 gravely shook themselves, and chatted in 

 a rippling undertone to each other, hud- 

 dling togetlicr until about a hundred birds 

 had collected on the rock. Then, amidst 

 a chorus of vibratory cries, they started 

 up the slope, following a well-defined 

 track until they reached the rushes and 

 trssocks, where they branched off along 

 smaller tracks to their respective nests. 

 All night long, as I lay on the verandah 

 of the keeper's house, I heard their cries 

 of welcome and endearment, mingled with 

 unmistakable cries of anger and annoy- 

 ance when some neighbour intruded on 

 the privacy of a nest, resounding from the 



stony ridges, and iscattered about the 

 sliingle on the slopes of the landward 

 side of the island, were hundreds of nests, 

 fiom which the birds rose at our ap- 

 proach, filling the air witli scolding or 

 ]ilaintive cries. The nests, although some- 

 times rather close together, were mostly 

 deep, and surrounded with quite a frame- 

 work of interlaced grass. In fact, some 

 of the nests were quite elaborate struc- 

 tures, although out on the sliingly slopes 

 they were merely deep indentations, with 

 a ridge of pebbles and a few straws or 

 fragments of dry seaweed round tlie eggs. 

 On some of the rocky headlands the eggs 

 were deposited in natural hollows in the 

 rocks, but nowhere did I see any nest so 

 placed that the eggs could roll from one 

 nest to another. The majority of the 



