184 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



PROTECTION OF NEW ZEALAND SEA BIRDS. 



An interesting petition has been presented to the House of 

 Representatives, New Zealand, by Sir George Grey, from Sir 

 James Hector and some 2,000 residents of Wellington, praying 

 the House to pass an act regulating the capture and destruction 

 of sea birds on the main and outlying islands of New Zealand. 

 The petitioners particularly submitted — 1. That the capture of 

 sea birds for the purpose of extracting oil should be prohibited. 

 2. That the taking of eggs, except for food, and the capture of 

 sea birds at breeding places, for their skins and feathers, should 

 be prohibited. The petition gives curious information. Certain 

 persons have commenced to capture sea birds and boil them 

 down for oil. The penguins on the Bounty Group are estimated 

 not to exceed three millions, and the penguins in all the islands 

 together are estimated not to exceed six millions. These birds 

 are gathered together on easily accessible rocks, and a party of 

 four or five men could, the petitioners assert, with ease in one 

 day capture every penguin on the Snares ; in a few weeks all on 

 the Auckland Group ; in two or three days all on Campbell 

 Island ; in one day all on the Antipodes ; in a fortnight all on 

 the Bounty Group ; and in a short additional time would 

 virtually exterminate these birds as they come on shore to breed. 

 The amount of oil to be obtained by all this destruction would 

 be 1,000 tons. Certain persons purpose visiting island after 

 island for the purpose of boiling down all the penguins. Terns, 

 gulls, albatrosses, and particularly mutton birds, which are now 

 an available article of food, are to be treated in the same way. 

 The petitioners complain of eggs being taken from the nesting 

 grounds of the albatross. — The Australasian. 



Of the important subject above mentioned, and coming nearer 

 home, it may be remembered that one of our members con- 

 tributed a paper on the " Protection of Native Birds," at the 

 Australasian Science Association which met at Sydney, 1888. A 

 sub-committee was appointed to deal with the matter, and was 

 re-appointed at the Melbourne Congress, 1890, but up to the 

 present has not been called together. The New Zealand Con- 

 gress is now on the tapis, and it is questionable whether the 

 association is performing its best work in galloping annually from 

 capital to capital while allowing useful work undertaken at its 

 previous meetings to lapse. — A. J. C. 



