Vol. XXIV. 
1024 
FALLA, Breeding of Rullcr’s •Shearwater 
43 
hard pressed to find a place of refuge. No doubt, while the 
nestlings are very young, the Tuatara includes a few in his limited 
menu; in fact, one which we captured on the Poor Knights 
regurgitated an undigested scrap of bird, the plumage of which 
looked like that of a fledgling Diving Petrel (Pelecanoides 
urinatrix). Reischek’s investigations on Karewa Island in the 
Ray of Plenty (Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. XVIII, p. 109, 1885), 
indicate that they are there in the habit of chewing off the heads 
of young Shearwaters, probably Puffinus carneipes. However, 
the mortality among Puffinus bullcri due to the Tuatara must be 
so small as to be negligible. The ravages of wild pigs on the 
large southern island are a more serious menace, but fortunately 
the pigs are confined to this one island, and do not exist on 
several others where the Shearwater is numerous. 
Food .—The only evidence obtained under this head was by 
examination of the stomach contents of the few birds taken as 
specimens. In each case the stomach, crop and even the gullet 
were crammed with a viscous olive-green mass, almost entirely 
composed of minute crustacean remains, but containing also a 
few beaks of a small cephalopod. Unfortunately the samples 
taken were lost before they could be examined, so that identifi¬ 
cation of the species still remains uncertain. 
Conclusion .—Much fuller investigation of this breeding ground 
is necessary in order to obtain anything like adequate information 
on the life history of Puffinus bullcri. In the present state of 
our knowledge it would be impossible even to estimate the num¬ 
ber of birds breeding on the Poor Knights. That it must be very 
large may be gathered from our last experience of the birds just 
before leaving. The sky was overcast, and a sharp north-easter 
was whipping the wave-tops into foam, and raising a nasty sea. 
We lay on the eastern side of the northern island, with an un¬ 
broken view of the seaward horizon extending through 180 deg. 
At about a mile from the launch, showing just above the horizon 
line, and extending along the whole visible length of it, was a 
bank of wheeling Shearwaters. As far as we could see with 
binoculars they were all Buller’s. Beyond them again were still 
more wheeling birds, and so on until they disappeared as specks 
in the distance. At a conservative estimate they must have 
numbered many thousands; while at the same time we had reason 
to believe that most of the burrows on the island contained sitting 
birds. 
It is a matter for congratulation that the New Zealand Govern¬ 
ment, mainly owing to representations made by Mr. Fraser, has 
already declared this group of islands a Scenic Reserve, and it 
is to be hoped that a sympathetic public opinion will co-operate 
with Mr. Fraser in his untiring efforts to protect the unique wild 
life of the sanctuary from interference by unauthorised persons, 
or imported pests. 
