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me a careful drawing by Keulemans from the type of P. opisthomelas (obtained off the coast of Lower 
California), which w^as sent over from the Smithsonian Institution for the purpose of being figured in 
his forthcoming ‘ Monograph,’ and this feature is very distinct. 
They congregate in flocks, often of considerable size, and fly in a compact body, generally in a 
zigzag course, with a very rapid movement of the wings and not far above the water. Their flight is 
peculiar, too, in this respect, that they appear all to turn at the same moment, like a company of 
soldiers, showing first the dark plumage of the upper surface and then the white underparts as they 
simultaneously dip towards the water. 
Their habits are sociable, and flocks may often be seen in the daytime disporting themselves in 
the sea, making short flights just above the surface, then flopping into the water, splashing and chasing 
one another in their playful gambols, and when tired of their fun rising in a body and rapidly disap- 
pearing from view in the manner already described. On one occasion I saw a flock of several hundred 
thus amusing themselves in the broad sunshine (although the bird is more nocturnal than diurnal) as 
our ship was steaming through the narrow “ French pass ” in Cook’s Strait. 
They seem to scatter at night, for as darkness approached I have noticed numerous single 
examples, as if the flocks of the daytime were dispersing over the snrface of the ocean in quest of 
their food. They fly low but swiftly, and utter a note resembling the native name by which the bird 
is called, bnt somewhat prolonged, as faka-ha-a — paJca-ha-a. During the breeding-season I have 
seen very large flocks of them between Whale Island and the mainland, some of them hovering on 
the wing, hundreds together in “schools” or flocks, and others scattered far and wide over the surface, 
floating in a listless manner as if resting after the hunting exploits of the night. 
Occasionally, perhaps once in several years, they appear in prodigious flocks and seem to cover 
the sea for miles around ; but they soon scatter again over “ ocean’s boundless bosom,” and are then 
not more plentiful than the other Petrels. This periodical “ mustering of the clans ” is doubtless due 
to a superabundance of some particular food-supply in the part of the sea where they congregate. 
Whale Island is one of their favourite breeding-grounds, the places selected being the stony, 
scrub-covered slopes near the summit, as well as the holes and crevices among the rocks far above 
high-water mark. The adjacent little island of Motoki is also a nesting-ground. The island of 
Karewa in the Bay of Plenty, and the numerous islands in the Hauraki Gulf are also favourite 
breeding-grounds. They nest in communities and their burrows are like rabbit-warrens, covering 
acres in extent. As a rule, they go down vertically for about a foot and then spread ofl' laterally for 
a distance of two feet or more, thus forming a chamber in which the Petrel deposits her single egg and 
afterwards cradles her young. In the early morning the old birds go off to sea, and do not return 
to their nests till after dark, when there is great noise and excitement among the nestlings in their 
eagerness for the food which has been stewing for them all day long in their parents’ crops. 
The Maoris state that the young birds quit their nests for the sea towards the end of February, 
which would accord with my observations on Whale Island. They do their best, however, to interfere 
with this domestic arrangement, for when the fledglings are about to take their departure, they are 
visited by Maori hunting-parties, who capture sometimes four or five hundred of them in a day, and 
pot them in their own fat as hualma, which is esteemed a great delicacy. Having regard to the profit 
the island is strictly tapio during the early part of the breeding-season, and no native is allowed to land 
there. The expiation of the tafu and the slaughter of the innocents form one and the same event ! 
It breeds on several of the larger islands in the Hauraki Gulf ; and Mr. Cheeseman found it 
nesting on the “Hen and Chickens.” 
An egg of this species in my son’s collection is broadly oval, measuring 2'3 inches in length by 2 
in breadth, and is perfectly white. 
