MUTTON-BIRD SEASON
SMALLER CATCH THIS YEAR The Orewa (Mr H. Roderique), which left for the mutton-bird islands last week, has returned to Bluff. Because of bad weather it was not possible to start picking up the mutton-birders until Wednesday. On the return journey one of the men was taken ill with appendicitis and sent to hospital immediately on arrival at Bluff. The natives were considerably cheered by the fact that the birds had turned out better in the torching in the last half of the season. Even so the catch was only half of that of last year. Some attributed this to the fact that in the very bad weather experienced the wind quickly blew away the down on the young birds emerging from the burrows at half season, thus enabling them to fly away almost immediately. Others say that "ticks" caused the deaths of many birds, some of which were found with these under their wings. However, the natives made the best of a bad season and came home cheerful.
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Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 24760, 3 June 1942, Page 4
Word Count
171MUTTON-BIRD SEASON Southland Times, Issue 24760, 3 June 1942, Page 4
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