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Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds



exactly like the terrified screaming of a child. In the stillness of

the night with the sinister black forms like winged demons flitting

across the sky, it seemed as though we had chanced upon that inferno

where the Catholics tell us the souls of the unbaptized children go

for eternal torment. The more one listened the more human and

heartrending the cries seemed to become, so that we were not sorry

when the dawn broke and these strange creatures retired to their

burrows or to the distant sea for their fishing.


It will ever remain a mystery how the birds are able to penetrate

through the dense upper tiers of the forest on a pitch-black night

and find their burrows, and are then able to take off again and get

through the branches without injuring themselves. All around the

burrows the ground was bare and perfectly clean; there was none

of the dirt and mess one usually associates with sea birds, and in

the burrows all is scrupulously clean. Like most other Petrels the

young get excessively fat, weighing very much more than the adult

bird. In this stage they look like immense balls of fluff. In time

the young are deserted by the parents while they are still in the

downy stage. Gradually the young lose the down and assume the

adult plumage, becoming, during the course of many weeks of

starvation, much thinner. At last the pangs of hunger drive

them from the burrows, when they make for the sea and, throwing

themselves into the air, they are ready to brave the perils of the

ocean, not returning to land until they are adult and feel the

natural urge of reproduction.


In the olden days many thousands of these birds were collected

from the nesting holes by the Maoris on their “ Mutton-birding ”

expeditions, but since the islands have become sanctuaries this has

been stopped.


The Saddleback (Greadion carunculatus)


A three hours’ journey from the Little Barrier Island by motor

launch lies another smaller and even more precipitous island, which

is also one of the last refuges of an exceedingly rare and aberrant

Starling-like bird, known in the old days to the colonists as the

“ Saddleback ”, a most conspicuous and striking bird, well known



