127 
XII. 
TWILIGHT AND DAWN. 
In another volume some description has been 
given of the several Petrels noted by me on islands 
immediately north and east of Stewart Island. On 
them the Mutton bird was comparatively scarce ; 
now, however, fifty or seventy miles farther south, 
we had reached the main breeding-field of the 
species. On Kotiwhenu, and on the larger con- 
tiguous bit of land Te Puka, they were visible 
each night in enormous quantities. Readers of 
‘Mutton Birds and other Birds’ may recollect an 
account of the stately sailings of individual birds 
of this breed over Te Marama, of their long sweep- 
ing circles hardly broken by flicker of wing, of 
their huge aerial loops and coils, albatross-like in 
sustained evenness of poise. On Kotiwhenu, flicker 
of wing-tip was comparatively prominent; the 
points of the primaries controlling speed and 
direction visibly played the part of brake and 
rudder. With so prodigious a number of birds 
