TWILIGHT AND DAWN 133 
of fencing for position, the one grovelling before 
the other, as, for instance young Shags coax their 
stern-eyed parents. The suppliant had doubt- 
less during the previous day guarded the burrow 
or incubated the egg; the other, the free bird 
I took it, did not with tyrannical intent withhold 
the food, but was probably only able to disgorge 
through the full excitation of certain muscles by 
solicitation and endearment. 
On these southern isles the very number of 
birds confuse. It is difficult to concentrate on 
one or one pair; there is too much to listen for 
and watch. It often happens, moreover, that 
such concentration is disappointing, that per- 
haps after an hour’s stare the individual from 
which for some reason or other much is expected 
dimly disappears into shade of log, or fades into 
unnoted burrow at the observer’s feet. Then again, 
like no other resting birds, it is not sufficient to 
mark a specimen to its hole. Amongst Mutton 
birds that is no certain clue to personality or 
possession. In the ramifications of a burrow 
each of the side passages may, and often does, 
harbour a sitting bird. 
The observer is, in fact, bewitched by oppor- 
tunity. He finds recorded in his brain and note- 
book vague fragments, unassimilated sights and 
sounds, rather than exactitudes. Something, how- 
ever, can be disentangled from this mass of material, 
