WHAT WAS IT?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 83, 9 April 1942, Page 6

WHAT WAS IT?

BIRD AT ONETANGI

GAXXET OR ALBATROSS?

A bird which aroused some specu

lation as to its type was washed ashore at Onetangi, Waiheke Island, on Eastei Sunday. Information about it was given yesterday by Mr. A. E. Henley, of Grey Lynn, on returning from Onetangi, where he is in charge of the St. John Ambulance station.

Mr. Henley said the bird, which was of the gannet type, with the verv large wing span of 7ft 2in. was washed ashore with its wings so wet it cipuldn't fly. It was taken to the station and dried, remaining there for a day before taking off and heading out to sea.

The bird was a babv. said Mr. Henley, who has studied birds extensively. It was greyish-white in colour, with a black beak 7iin long and strongly curved at the end. Its eyes were bottle-green, its head speckled, and its feet, which were black, were not webbed like that of the seagull, but were webbed on an angle. It was very vicious and the other seagulls took to it as though it were a stranger.

Mr. Henley said some thought it was a gannet, but he himself wondered if it might be an albatross, owing to the large wins span. Albatrosses had been seen here, he said. When inquiries were made from Mr. E. G. Turbott, zoologist at the Auckland War Memorial Museum this morning, he said that he could hardly tell from the description, but he imagined it would be a gannet. Last year, at this time, a gannet had been washed ashore at Stanley Bay.