^^THE mutton-bird/^ 
309 
An Australian species [Puffimts hrevicaitdus) , called fami- 
liarly the ^^Mutton-bird/^ is celebrated for its abundance, — 
no bird, excepting perhaps the migratory pigeon, being met 
with in such large flocks. Captain Flinders saw a stream 
of them pass for a full hour and a half : this flock was from 
fifty to eighty yards in depth, and at least three hundred 
yards in breadth. On the lowest computation he regarded 
the number as not being less than a hundred millions ; 'land, 
as each burrow is occupied by a single pair, he calculated 
that the burrows of that one flock would cover something 
more than eighteen and a half geographic square miles of 
ground. Mr. Gould and subsequent observers have con- 
firmed Flinders^s observations. Backhouse, when on Green 
Island, in Basses Straits, says that at dusk the air seemed 
alive with myriads of these birds returning to roost, so that 
in looking up w^e were reminded of a shower of large flakes 
of snowf/^ These birds, when fresh, are pretty good eating; 
at all events they form a good substitute for salt meat. 
Considerable numbers of the young are salted and dried, 
when. Backhouse tells us, they taste much like red-herrings. 
In Basses Straits it is chiefly for their feathers that the 
mutton-birds are destroyed. As many as two tons and a 
* Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, p. 29. 
