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Sydney Porte?—Notes on New Zealand Birds



The “ torching 55 seasons begins about the 2nd May. The young

birds which have not been caught in their holes now come out at

night to preen their plumage and get rid of the down which still adheres

to the plumage prior to taking their first flight to sea. The nestlings

are dazzled by the light of the torches and get too confused to return

to their homes. During this season 300 birds are often taken in a

single night by one man. A family of three people will take from

6,000 to 7,000 birds in a season. One old “ mutton birder ”, who had

been plying his trade since 1875, told me that the birds were on the

increase, but I can hardly see how this is possible as the birds only

lay one egg in the season. I think he thought I was a Government

inspector, down to make inquiries respecting the protecting of the

birds.


The young birds are fed by their parents during the night only,

upon an oil-like liquid which the young bird vomits up when handled

or frightened. They get enormously fat and are, after a time, deserted

by their parents ; the young birds gradually get thinner until at last,

having got rid of all the down and in perfect plumage and a normal

weight, they then make their way from the nesting holes towards the

edge of the cliffs or rocks, from whence they throw themselves into

the air, and so the adventure of Life starts, and what an adventure

it is ! For nine months of the year they are wanderers on all the

seven seas, never once touching land in all that time.


On one of the islands, I forget its name now, I met an old Maori,

90 years of age, a rare relic of the pre-British area. He explained

to me the old Maori method of procuring the birds, which differed

considerably from the methods employed to-day. The birds after

being hung for two days were boiled in their own fat in an elaborately

carved wooden vessel known as the “ Hipu-titi ”. It was hollowed

out of a tree-trunk and shaped like a small canoe with a swan-heck

shaped spout at one end for pouring the oil out. The method was

to put into the vessel a certain amount of mutton-bird oil rendered

from the offal of the birds, then the cleaned bodies were placed in this

and the whole brought to a boil by placing red hot stones in the fat.

After a time the bodies were taken out, placed in the kelp bags, and

the whole filled up with oil. Earthen or iron pots were unknown to



