TWILIGHT AND DAWN 135 
is not a homogeneous horde. It is as dissoluble 
as any army into divisions, brigades, and bat- 
talions. We found, in fact, that the swarm of 
birds flying nightly over Kotiwhenu and breeding 
on its peat were composed of companies of vary- 
ing size. It was an aggregate of almost number- 
less parties that, great or small, each evening drew 
towards the land. Though in close proximity, 
they did not mix, each company preserving its 
entirety, swinging slowly backwards and forwards 
low on the water until the proper pitch of darkness 
had arrived. 
That the seemingly homogeneous multitude was 
indeed made up of a number of tribes and clans 
was corroborated by the conditions of the burrows. 
On one headland, or bank, or crown, or indeed 
locality undistinguishable by any particular out- 
ward sign, there might be newly hatched young, 
on another incubated eggs, on another fresh eggs, 
on another unoccupied nests, each company, big 
or little, possessing its strip of territory, its own 
particular private breeding-ground. We experi- 
enced, indeed, in our own proper persons the dif- 
ference in date of egg-laying by those different 
communities. An accident having prevented the 
return of the Dolly at the appointed date, and 
other food having been consumed, we lived for 
five days on Mutton-bird eggs and chickweed. 
These eggs, white like manna on the surface of 
