14 LORD HOWE ISLAND. 



Lord Howe and its associated islets are a great resort of sea-birds, and 

 have been so more in the past than now. This is particularly the case with 

 the Admiralty and Mutton-bird Islets, and a few spots on the main island, 

 which are at certain seasons of the year veritable rookeries. 



The larger of the Admiralty Islets is an irregularly shaped island, pierced 

 at its northern end by a sea-water passage. The north-east side presents 

 a perpendicular face to the ocean, but its western face is a gradual although 

 steep slope, and is occupied by thousands of birds, Gannets, Petrels, and 

 Terns. There is but one point at which a landing can be effected, and this 

 only in fine settled weather. The whole hillside is indiscriminately occupied 

 by the sea-fowl, every tussock hides a so-called nest, and every projecting 

 piece of rock has its sitter. Notwithstanding their number, there is no 

 regular deposit of guano, but what there is becomes mixed with the red 

 loamy basaltic soil, and is more or less washed over the faces of the cliffs on 

 the eastern side and northern end, and from the succeeding chemical 

 decomposition produces a white streaky appearance on the cliff faces, 

 over which the semi-fluid material has poured, and giving rise, when viewed 

 at some distance from a boat, to the appearance of a series of white-washed 

 spaces on the perpendicular cliffs. The late Dr. Charles Darwin, F.R.S.,* 

 describes a similar substance on the cliffs of St. Paul's rocks — " Extensive 

 portions of these rocks are coated by a layer of a glossy polished substance 

 with a pearly lustre and of a greyish-white colour ; it follows all the in- 

 equalities of the surface, to which it is firmly attached It is considerably 



harder than calcareous spar, but can be scratched with a knife ; under the 

 blow-pipe it scales off, decrepitates, slightly blackens, emits a foetid odour, 

 and becomes strongly alkaline ; it does not effervesce in acids. I presume 

 this substance has been deposited by water draining from the bird's dung, 

 with which the rocks are covered." 



Amongst the Petrels, Prion turtur was obtained, but at the time we 

 visited the island, it was anything but common. It is perhaps worthy of 

 record that we saw the Pintado or Cape Pigeon, Daption capensis, both 

 going and returning from the island about S. Lat. 32°. This group is, how- 

 ever, abundantly represented by the " Mutton-birds," so called. Two 

 species, Puffinus brevicaudus, Brandt, and P. sphenurus, Gould, are ex- 

 ceedingly common ; the smaller P. sphenurus, on Mutton-bird and Goat 

 Islands, and on the Admiralty Islets, but the other species frequents certain 

 spots on the east coast of the island itself. The Mutton-birds begin to 

 arrive at the latter end of August, as we made our first capture on September 

 1st, on Goat Island. The same species was afterwards obtained by Mr. 

 Thorpe and the writer at Mutton-bird Point, where we experienced both the 

 biting propensities, and the peculiar and offensive smell emitted by these 

 birds. Their holes are usually hid under a tussock of grass, sometimes 

 running into the face of the slope for a considerable distance, at other times 

 a mere excavated depression of the surface. The propensities just mentioned 

 have been commented on by the late Mr. Macgillivray, who, speaking of 

 Goose Island, in Bass Straits remarksf — " As usual with the Petrel family, 

 they bite severely if incautiously handled, and disgorge a quantity of offen- 

 sive oily matter, the smell of which pervades the whole island." The large 

 species, P. brevicaudus, frequents the east coast of the main island, and 

 forms for itself extensive rookeries extending inland from the edge of the 

 cliff, or the beach at high-water mark, as the case may be, for a considerable 



* Geol. Obs. Vole. Islands, visited during the voyage of H. M.S. " Beagle," 1844, p. 32. 

 t Voyage of H.M.S. " Rattlesnake," 1852, I, p. 73. 



