Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds



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selves with the utmost vigour, often inflicting severe wounds on the

hands with their strong beak, all the while threshing one with their

flippers as hard as they can go. Their pluck is amazing, if one

stands between the bird and the sea it is almost impossible to stop

it reaching its native element.


The Little Blue Penguin does not walk in the usual upright and

rather dignified way as most of the larger Penguins do, but shuffles

along with a stooping gait, and if hard pressed it will throw itself

down and work its way along with the aid of the flippers. It is then

surprising how quickly it gets along.


Although so specially adapted for its oceanic life it suffers

severely in storms, and after very bad weather many bodies can be

seen on the beaches cast up by the tide. Otherwise this little bird

has but few enemies. This bird makes the most delightful pet

imaginable; a single specimen was being kept for me by a friend,

a charmingly tame little fellow who w r ould come up and talk to one

in his quaint, guttural Penguin language. All preparations were

made for his shipment, including blocks of frozen fish, but alas!

the day before I was due to sail he died. I very much regretted his

decease for I do not suppose that I shall ever have the chance of

another of these charming little birds.


Unlike most other Penguins, this is not a gregarious bird, one

only sees them singly or in pairs in the breeding season.


The Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes)


The various names under which the different groups of Petrels

are known are, to say the least, rather confusing to the beginner :

they are called alternately Shearwaters, Prions, Mollymawks, etc.,

while their vernacular names are legion.


New Zealand and the surrounding islands are doubtless the

metropolis of this family, no less than thirty-four species being

found around the coasts and islands. Most of the closely allied

species are very difficult to distinguish when on the wing. New

species are being discovered all the time, many only differing in

the length of the primary wing feathers or in the slight variation

of the colouring.



