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while his crab is being devoured ; and having seen the last of it he gives a stifled whistle and trots 
off in search of another, his eager attendant following suit. 
It frequents our harbours in large numbers, hovering round the shipping and associating freely 
with the Black-backed Gull ; but although it often follows the vessel from its anchorage it does not 
venture so far out to sea as its larger congener. It also goes inland to feed, and large flocks, 
numbering several hundred birds, may sometimes be seen in the grass-paddocks, or following the 
plough on the settlers’ farms, miles away from any sheet of water. In the month of March I met 
with a considerable flock of them at Sulphur Point in Lake Eotorua. 
The light hovering flight and pretty aerial movements of this bird around and amongst the 
shipping at its moorings is quite a distinctive feature of our ports. Its ordinary cry is cre-cre-cre ; 
but when alarmed or excited this becomes prolonged into cr-e-e-6 cr-e-e-d. 
At Maketu, near the ancient landing-place, there is a conspicuous grove of karamu [Coprosma 
Incida). The Maori tradition is that these trees sprang from the skids brought ashore from the 
Arawa canoe and used for hauling her up, when the first inhabitants landed on this coast some five 
hundred years ago. In deference to this widely accepted tradition, this clump of trees has, from time 
immemorial, been strictly tapu. About the year 1845 a native named Hororiri, in a fit of melancholy, 
hung himself on one of the karamu trees ; but so sacred was the spot that none of his friends would 
venture in to cut him down. His body accordingly dangled there till it fell ; and when I visited the 
place in 1880, human bones were still to be seen on the ground. My reason, however, for mentioning 
the place in the present connection is this : at the season when the karamu-berries are ripe hundreds 
of the Eed-billed Gull resort to this clump of trees and, perching on the topmost twigs, eagerly devour 
the fruit — a circumstance in the history of this species which has not hitherto been observed elsewhere. 
Captain Mair assures me that he has often been an eye-witness of this himself. He adds: — “ They 
were so tame that I could have knocked them down with my walking-stick. I also saw them in 
great numbers in the corn-fields at Maketu, and again near Tauranga yesterday (May 12). I saw a 
man ploughing up a grass-field ; a flock of three or four hundred of these beautiful little creatures 
followed his furrow so closely that they seemed almost to settle between his feet.” 
By the end of January most of the young birds have started in life on their own account ; 
although, owing to the gregarious instinct of the species, they often remain for months in association 
with the old birds. At Ohinekoau, a few miles south of Matata, I observed (as early as Jan. 17) a 
full-grown young bird following its parents. The latter were very tame, hovering within a few feet 
of us in an inquisitive fashion, whilst the young one, uttering a low whimpering cry, occupied itself 
in catching flies on a flowering shrub at the water’s edge. This was at the very spot where, in 1864, 
our faithful ally, Winiata Tohiteururangi, badly wounded in both hip and shoulder, during an 
engagement with the Ngatiporou, breathed his last, — telling his panic-stricken followers to fight on 
bravely under the British flag. The magnificent pohutukawa tree against which rested the body of 
the dying chief is still pointed out to the traveller. 
During the breeding-season, which extends over December and January, this Gull resorts to the 
river-beds and to the shores of lakes a short distance from the sea, often nesting in large colonies, 
and depositing its eggs on the bare ground with little attempt at preparation. About the middle 
of January I visited one of these breeding-places in the Bay of Plenty. The young at this time, 
although fully fledged, were unable to fly, but took readily to the water. On catching one of them it 
disgorged from its throat some small fish with which it had just been fed. This food was in a semi- 
digested state, and had doubtless undergone some process of deglutition in the crop of the old bird 
before being served. The eggs are generally three in number, broadly ovoido-conical in form, measuring 
2T inches in length by 1'5 in breadth ; they vary in colour from greenish white to a pale yellowish 
brown, spotted and marked with greyish purple and brown, more thickly towmrds the larger end. 
VOL. II. I 
