KOTIWHENU 107 
where thickest clustered on the base of the spinning 
vase, flight was comparatively slow; as distance 
increased, so proportionately did celerity of cir- 
cumrotation. Except that man is a clumsy slow- 
footed creature, and except that football is played 
on the flat, if a tight scrum as enacted at Rugby 
in the ’seventies can be imagined revolving, with 
forwards bursting through in order to regain as 
rapidly as possible their proper positions, all 
likewise wheeling in one direction, some faint con- 
ception may be gained of the eagerness of each 
Petrel to regain the centre of events. Remark- 
able, however, as was the funnel-shaped mass of 
birds in outline, its aerial balance was no less 
amazing ; wings were used only to break the fall 
waterwards and to rise. Once off the water, the 
birds, catching the wind, circled wide and wider, 
fast and faster, without beat of wings, without 
stroke of pinion. It was an exhibition of exuberant 
vitality consequent on stimulating food, probably 
in this case on extremely stimulating food, for 
birds are affected almost instantly by what they 
swallow. These Petrels were drunk with energy, 
mad with wild zest of life. For hours we passed 
through masses of feeding birds, each individual 
of each feeding flock seeming to adhere strictly 
to his own tribe or clan. 
In due course we reached Kotiwhenu. There, 
after brief preliminary inspection, I decided to 
