The New Zealand Shearwater 



seen making for the island from every quarter, and that with a rapidity 

 hardly conceivable; when they congregate together, so dense is the cloud, 

 that night is ushered in full ten minutes before the usual time. The 

 birds continue flitting about the island for nearly an hour and then settle 

 upon it. The whole island is burrowed; and when I state that there 

 are not sufficient burrows for one-fourth of the birds to lay in, the scene 

 of noise and confusion which ensues may be imagined — I will not attempt 

 to describe it. On the morning of the 25th the male birds take their 

 departure, returning again in the evening, and so they continue to do 

 until the end of the season. Every burrow on the island contains, accord- 

 ing to its size, from one to three or four birds, and as many eggs; one is 

 the general rule. At least three-fourths of the birds lay under bushes, 

 and the eggs are so numerous that great care must be taken to avoid 

 trampling upon them. The natives from Flinders generally live for some 

 days on Green Island at this time of the year for the purpose of collecting 

 the eggs, and again in March or April for curing the young birds. The 

 eggs and cured birds form a great portion of the food of sealers, and, 

 together with their feathers, constitute the principal articles of their 

 traffic." 



Inasmuch as the standard-sized feather-bed required the sacrifice 

 of some 1600 birds, it may readily be seen how these once numerous birds, 

 raising at best but a single young each year, became sadly depleted in 

 numbers. Fortunately, governmental regulation has since been insti- 

 tuted, and this enlightened policy bids fair to maintain Slender-billed 

 Shearwaters and allied species at something like the present status. 



No. 410 



New Zealand Shearwater 



A. O. U. No. 96.2. Puffinus bulleri Salvin. 



Description. — "Adult: Upper surface dark grey, crown and back of the neck 

 sooty-black, the lores and region below the eye mottled with greyish white; lesser 

 wing-coverts sooty-black; larger coverts grey and bordered with white; primaries 

 outwardly black, two-thirds of the inner web white; under surface and under wing- 

 coverts white; under tail-coverts white, with a grey edge; tail blackish, outer rectrices 

 tinged with grey; bill dark horn-colour, the mandible beneath fleshy; tarsi and toes 

 yellowish, outwardly dusky. Total length about 16.5 inches [mm 419. 1]; wing 1 1.3 

 [mm 287]; tail, central rectrices 5.2 [mm 132. 1], lateral rectrices 3.5 [mm 88.9]; bill 

 2.6 [mm 66]; tarsus 2 [mm 50.8], middle toe 2.35 [mm 59.7], outer toe 2.3 [mm 58.4], 

 inner toe 2 [mm 50.8]" (Salvin). 



Recognition Marks. — A black-and-white wedge-tailed type, paler above, gray 

 instead of sooty. White on inner webs of primaries distinctive. 



2008 



