PETRELS' RETURN TO LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20088, 27 October 1928, Page 16

PETRELS' RETURN TO LAND.

NATURALIST'S OBSERVATIONS

Describing the habits of petrels in their nesting grounds, Mr. Guthrie Smith, in a lecture on native Now Zealand birds in Wellington (he other night, said that by the manner of thoiv return each night one was reminded of Hie feeding of the exiled Philistines by the birds which fell from the air. The petrels alighted so thickly that they were caught by objects on the ground, !i:rul it was possible the next morning to gather them by hand. An upright kerosene tin was almost certain to contain two or thioe birds. An apt simile was used by Mr. Smith to describe the return of the petrels to their roosting ground. From a mutton birder's whare lie had watched the birds arrive.- At i p.m. the earliest, birds l.egan to alight. They settled with an entire absence of fluttering, and dropped the last few feet vertically. The sound of their landing was similar to that of rain upon a roof. Soon, however, greater numbers began to settle, and tho noise was like hail till the even more numerous latecomers arrived and alighted, but almost silently, like the falling of snow. Then followed an endless rushing about, each bird seeking its mate and calling aloud till (he chatter was reminiscent of a flock of lambs at shearing time.