38 FALLA, Breeding of Butler's Shearwater. 
r The Emu 
L 1st July 
of middle and inner toes pale fleshy white; webs flesh-white 
splashed with grey on outer edge and underside; outer edge of 
tarsi, of middle toe, and whole outer toe brownish black. Total 
length, 18 inches; wing from flexure 11.6; tail, 5.5 ; oilmen, 2.1 ; 
edge of lower mandible, 2.2; tarsus, 1.85; middle toe and 
claw, 2.5. 
T wish to express my thanks for much assistance in the 
preparation of this paper to the Hon. R. F. Bollard, Minister of 
Internal Affairs, for permission to collect specimens of both bird 
and egg; to Mr. W. R. B. Oliver, of the Dominion Museum, for 
consulting references which were inaccessible to me; to Mr. J. 
G. Myers, for several helpful suggestions connected with the 
paper; and lastly for assistance in the field to the promoters of 
the expedition, Mr. W. H. Hamer, Engineer to the Auckland 
Harbour Board, and Mr. W. M. Fraser, of Whangarei; also to 
Mr. H. G. Hamer, of Devonport, whose photographic assistance 
added much to jthe value of the records obtained. 
Introduction .—In a country whose avifauna can boast of barely 
two hundred species, including sea birds, it might reasonably be 
thought that the last word had been said regarding the number 
of permanent breeding species on the mainland and islands 
closely adjacent. It is therefore an added pleasure to place on 
record an account of the breeding place off the New Zealand 
coast of Buller’s Shearwater (Puffinus hulleri), a species which 
has eluded the attempts of ornithologists to find its home, since 
the first discovery of the bird itself, nearly forty years ago. 
Through the courtesy of Mr. W. M. Fraser, Engineer to the 
Whangarei Harbour Board, and Honorary Inspector of the 
Scenic Reserve Islands lying off the north-east coast of New 
Zealand, the writer was given an opportunity, during December, 
1923, of visiting the little-known group of the Poor Knights 
Islands, which lie about 80 miles north of Auckland and twelve 
miles east of the mainland, in latitude 35 deg. 30 min. S., and 
longitude 174 deg. 45 min. E. The two main islands lie close 
together, and extend from north to south over a distance of two 
and a half miles. Both are volcanic in origin, and present to the 
sea on all sides bold precipitous faces, with here and there a less 
vertical slope supporting dense vegetation. Everywhere the 
covering, whether of low forest, flax, thick rushes or scrub, is 
extraordinarily dense. Several smaller islets complete this part 
of the group, while three miles further south lie the inaccessible 
pinnacles of the Poor Knights Rocks, one of them conspicuous 
with a white cap of nesting Gannets. 
^ Although these islands were visited and briefly described by- 
Cook in 1769, they have remained practically unvisited since, 
their bare uninviting aspect from the sea having deterred scien¬ 
tists and pleasure-seekers alike. With the exception of an 
account by Dr. L. Cockayne of a brief botanical visit (Trans. 
N.Z. Inst, vol. 38, p. 351, 1905), no literature on the natural 
