THK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 181 



great focus of arrivals being probably the 25th or 26th of Novem- 

 ber. The first eggs taken during our visit were from Babel 

 Island, where we ascertained they were secured on the i8th, while 

 we were present at the great arrivals of birds on Chappell Island on 

 the evening of the 26th. A truly marvellous sight, and worth the 

 trip itself to see. On the egg being deposited, the female leaves 

 for a week to recruit and grow fat at sea, while her lord stead- 

 fastly sits. He goes out the following week, and so on, turn and 

 turn about, for eight weeks, till the egg is hatched. The young 

 are fed in the burrows till about the middle of April, when they 

 are simply a ball of fat, and heavier than their parents. At this 

 stage the parents desert them. As a consequence, fatty de- 

 generation ensues, quills and feathers sprout, and the youngsters, 

 becoming impatient and hungry, clear out too about ten days or 

 a fortnight after their parents. By the first week of May not a 

 feather remains upon the island. Where the birds, young and old, 

 disappear to no person seems to know ; nothing is seen of them 

 till the following spring, when some balmy evening in September 

 the familiar dusky forms may be again seen swiftly cutting the 

 horizon and approaching from over the sea. 



For food the islanders commence to preserve the young birds 

 about the 20th March, carrying on the operation till the birds 

 finally quit. The young is dragged from its burrow, its head is 

 placed between the first two fingers, a downward jerk, together 

 with the weight of the bird's own body is given, and the neck is 

 easily dislocated. Fifty or sixty are thus strung on a spit or 

 stick, care being taken to keep the head upward so as not to 

 lose any oil. This oil, which is reddish in colour, is drained from 

 the bird and is used for lighting and for other purposes. Feathers 

 are then plucked, the body scalded to remove all down, and the 

 feet are cut off. The bodies are placed on the grass to cool by 

 evening, when they are cleaned, head and neck removed, and 

 finally salted and pickled in barrels, each family taking about 500 

 or 600 birds or more for home consumption. As a food the 

 birds are much prized, and persons who are fond of bacon and 

 pork and other fat foods readily take to Mutton Birds. 



On account of the great annual drain of these economical birds, 

 as well as the number of eggs taken every November, I may be 

 asked if the number of birds is diminishing. Judging by the 

 evidence of the islanders and our own observations nearer home 

 on Phillip Island, Western Port, I should say " No." For if the 

 birds were unmolested the burrows on the islands would not 

 contain them, so great are their numbers. All the burrows 

 being occupied, thousands upon thousands of eggs would be, and 

 are even now when the glut arrives, deposited upon the bare 

 ground or grass, and by exposure perish, or are devoured by sea 

 gulls and other enemies. However, legislation may be needed in 

 the near future with regard to depasturing cattle and sheep upon 



