Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds



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the Maoris, neither was salt. The old Maori and his family were some

of the few still practising the old method of killing the birds by bending

the head forward and biting through the spinal column with the teeth.

I was told of albino birds being sometimes found, also more rarely

khaki-coloured ones.


The nest of the birds seemed more plentiful in the dense under¬

growth of a peculiar plant superficially resembling rhubarb. It was

impossible to walk through these parts without falling down the holes.

The most remarkable thing is that after the birds have fed the young

ones during the night, they cannot take flight again off the ground

but have to shuffie (these birds cannot walk owing to the weakness

of the legs) through the undergrowth to the edge of the cliffs or rocks

often a quarter of a mile away where they throw themselves into the air.

The nesting habits of the Petrels are one of the most fascinating studies

of any known bird, and the more one studies them the more strange

and mysterious do they appear. Why these birds should gather from

all parts of the oceans to these small islands and go to so much trouble

and spend so many months every year in the process of reproduction

when they could easily nest as Sea-gulls do, for they have no natural

enemies that we know of, is a mystery that we shall never fathom.


During the nesting season the birds keep together in flocks not

far from the coast, though, of course, odd ones are often seen. The

birds during their fishing look exactly like giant Swifts ; they are

the same shape, colour, and their flight is very similar, for the birds

possess the small, narrow, sickle-shaped wings which they flutter in

the same manner as a Swift.


I think a great deal of the food is taken on the wing, for the birds

circle round and round seeming just to skim the surface of the ocean

with their bills. The birds are also able to dive and swim under the

water. Their food consists of low forms of marine life which float on

the surface of the water, plankton, cephalopods, the eggs of various

molluscs, etc. I could write a great deal more about these fascinating

birds, but space forbids.


The New Zealand Zosterops (Zosterops halmaturina)


The little “ Silver-eye ”, “ Blighty ”, “ Wax-eye ”, etc., as it is

variously called in New Zealand, has for many years been the subject



