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“ The island comprises about six acres of rock, without to all appearance a blade of vegetation 
upon it, and is situated about thirteen miles abreast of Kawhia. It forms a gentle slope upwards 
from the sea, with a sheer precipice on the other side. On the slope a space of about three acres in 
extent was literally one mass of Gannets, there being tens of thousands. Captain Fairchild, who has 
visited the island on many occasions, says that he found an almost incredible number breeding there, 
the separate nests being indicated by a few loose feathers placed on the guano-deposits in every 
available spot. Each nest contained only a single egg, and there were no idle mates, the male and 
female occupying nests side by side. He states that this bird breeds twice in the season first in 
September and again in February. Both sexes incubate, and at one and the same time ; foi every 
Gannet on the island was found sitting, and so close together that to walk amongst them was almost 
impossible. At the second breeding-time, in February, a young bird of the former brood, easily dis- 
tinguished by its spotted plumage, is invariably found squatting alongside of the incubator. He has 
often watched the old birds bringing food to the nest. They come in from the sea with their pouched 
throats quite full of small fish, which they forthwith disgorge and divide between the young ones. 
The operation is a very droll one, and maybe watched at a distance of only a few yards from the nest.” 
Captain Fairchild has himself furnished me with the following interesting account of their 
breeding-habits : — 
“ The habits of the Gannet are so very strange that it may interest you if I give the results of 
my own experience with these birds. So far as I am aware, their only breeding-places off the coast 
of New Zealand are on Gannet Island, lying to the east, on some small islands in the Hauraki Gulf, 
near Coromandel and near to the Great Barrier, and on White Island in the Bay of Plenty. At all 
these places the birds congregate in great numbers. They commence laying about the 18th 
September, and it takes about thirty-three days to hatch out the young. The female lays two eggs ; 
she keeps one and the male bird takes charge of the other, and each one hatches its own and after- 
wards looks after the wants of the young one. About the 1st February the same thing is repeated. 
The second hatching takes place about the first week in March. I hardly think that there can 
possibly be a mistake in this, as I have carefully watched the habits of these birds during the last 
twenty years, whenever an opportunity offered. 
There are evidently two broods in a season, for Captain Fairchild assures me that in every 
instance— and he examined hundreds of nests— where the old bird was covering an egg or a 
chick a well-grown young one, in spotted plumage, was sitting alongside, resting its beak on the 
parent’s shoulder, and on the least provocation showing fight in defence of the nursery. The old 
birds obstinately refused to quit their nests even when hustled and kicked with the foot ; and when 
thus molested, fought viciously, striking at the intruder with their powerful bills, and inflicting sharp 
cuts on the hand if incautiously placed too near. On his return from one of his annual cruises among 
the islands lying off New Zealand, he sent me a whole basketful of the eggs of this fine Gannet. This 
was about the first week in February, and as most of the eggs contained a well-advanced embryo, this 
would indicate a comparatively early date for the second brood. They varied somewhat in size, but 
an ordinary example measured 3 inches in length by 1'8 in breadth. They were, for the most part, 
very elliptical in form, and of a pale greenish colour, covered over with a chalky incrustation and 
much soiled. 
The eggs when taken from the nest are soiled and begrimed with dirt from the bird’s feet or 
from contact with the ground, having then a dark brown colour. On being cleaned by scrubbing 
with a wet brush, they present a chalky surface, often much scratched by the action of the bird s 
feet ; and on this being scraped off the shell becomes dull bluish white, which changes to a lovely 
pale blue tint on the inner surface. 
