44 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
he is simply a ball of grease. Then his father and 
mother forsake him, and for ten days his condition 
comes off and his feathers come on, till hunger drives 
him from the burrow, and off he goes to sea in the 
wake of his elders, having first, it is alleged, eaten a 
lot of sand, whether as a digestive or hy way of ballast 
is not clear. 
Such is the ideal and predestined life-history of the 
young Mutton-bird ; but there is the " birder " to 
reckon with. With his entire family and relations, 
this gentleman, whom I have already described, 
descends upon the rookeries, just what time the 
young bird is getting restless in the burrow. A 
long crook fishes him deftly from the burrow's end ; 
his neck then ruthlessly stretched, he is spitted with 
half a hundred of his kind on a long stick, head up- 
wards. For the reddish oil with which he is replete 
has a commercial value for the preparation of leather 
as well as for crude lighting, twenty birds yielding a 
gallon of it, and it is therefore carefully drawn off 
and bottled. 
To return to our Mutton-bird, he is plucked, 
scalded, his feet cut off, and later he is cleaned, 
decapitated, salted, and pickled in a barrel. Part 
of the finished product is kept for home consumption, 
but part reaches Victoria, where, despite a certain 
fish-like flavour, it is, when boiled lightly, then fried, 
and eaten cold, quite as well worth trying as some 
other imported delicatessen. 
Slaughter for food and the taking of eggs for 
