398 
Mr. R. Elwes on the Short-tailed Petrel. 
was a Hindoo woman from Calcutta, active and industrious, who 
kept it in good order. The other men had native wives or 
f gins 5 as they called them, from Australia and Van Diemen’s 
Land. 
Their original occupation was sealing; for these islands formerly 
swarmed with Seals. In the course of time these animals 
became exterminated; and now their principal livelihood is de¬ 
rived from the Mutton-birds which are found here in incredible 
numbers. 
These birds, called also Sooty or Short-tailed Petrels (Puf- 
finus brevicaudis, Gould, B. Austr. vii. pi. 56), have such long 
wings, that, like the Albatros, the largest of their tribe, they 
have great difficulty in rising from the ground when settled; 
and it is this peculiarity that makes their capture so easy. They 
build in holes in the ground. The islands which they frequent 
are burrowed over in all directions just like a rabbit-warren. They 
arrive in huge flocks about the 21st of September, generally to 
the day, to prepare their holes and clean them out. There is 
tremendous fighting and quarrelling for these holes. When the 
birds have arrived a few days, their tracks or pathways begin to 
be apparent, or, as the sealers say, “ they begin to show their 
runsfor they go down to the sea every morning. The sealers 
then dig a large pit in one of the main runs with small fences 
on each side leading down to it like a funnel. When all is 
ready, some morning at day-break, when the birds come out of 
their holes, they jy-e driven down these runs into the pitfall. 
“We rushes ’em down, Sir, and they all tumbles over one 
another into the hole,” was the way the men expressed it. They 
crowd down and fall in by hundreds, crushing and smothering- 
each other until the pit is full, when the men break down the 
fence at the sides and let the rest escape. They generally take 
2000 or 2200 in each drive. The men then jump into the hole 
and set to work to pick them, pulling off the body-feathers and 
stuffing them into bags and throwing the carcasses out of the 
hole. This lasts till noon. It is hard work; and before the end 
of the season their nails sometimes come off from the continual 
plucking. It takes the feathers of 25 birds to make a pound, 
which sells at Launceston for twopence; but Tucker, his wife, and 
