MUTTON BIRDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5427, 30 November 1895, Page 7

MUTTON BIRDS.

> When the mail left Melbourne prepars* tions were being made for the mutton* bird carnival, which takes place atOapr Woolamai during the last week of thti month. At Cape Woolamai the mutton birds lay their eggs and rear up thsir young. They have taken np a frontaga of about twenty-five chains for five milea along the seashore, which is burrowed with holes from two feet to five feet in length, running nearly horizontal, and an close together as possible. The birds oome from the sea each year about from Nor. 24 to 30, arriving about nightfall, and in im- • mense numbers. Soon each bird has a hole : seleoted, which, in due course, is cleaned • out, and a neßt is formed of bits of coarse grasß and leaveß. The birds lay aboutNov. 25—one egg each, and Nor, 26 is called locally "egging day." Large, parties assemble armed with saplings about six feet long, with a wire crook tied! at the end for drawing the eggs out of the holes, though the birds fight so hard for their eggs that digging iB sometimes necessary. Birds whose nests are robbed lay one egg again. The eggs weigh about 3soz eaoh. The young are hatched out at Christmas, but remain in the burrow until about the end ot April, when they fly.