Ghostly Flights Every Year

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17729, 26 December 1925, Page 17 (Supplement)

Ghostly Flights Every Year

Where the Mutton-Birds Lay .

FROM the vast tundras \ Ihrough which the mighlv [ Lena holds its slow and sullen way to the Arctic Seas, from the great grey steppes of Mongolia, from the forests and swamps along the Amur, and from the crowded countrysides of China and Japan millions of birds of over thirty different species pour southwards as the northern summer wanes to seek another summer in the south. About the same time unnumbered millions of birds of one species leave the waters of the North Pacific* for the I lon# wash of Australian and New Zea- j land seas. While the land birds that migrate to Australia and New Zealand make their nests in the Northern Hemisphere the mutton-bird or short-tailed petrels, which wander as far afield as Japan during our winter, have their true home in the south. At the beginning of May in each vear i the mutton-birds leave for the north. I For live months not a single bird is to * be seen about the islands to which they resort for breeding. In October, according to some observers, they re- ; turn and clean out the burrows in ; which they nest. Then they go off again for a few weeks. It is during the j last week in November that they 'sud- j denly appear in countless thousands to | lay their eggs and to rear the young. | After an absence of about a year, during which they have traversed many j thousands of miles of sea, they come I back to the day every year. In most j cases they return to the burrows which j they.occupied the year before. The New Zealand muttonbird (Puffinus griseus* is of a sooty brown colour, the under-wing coverts are pale grey, and each feather has a dark shaft. It I is found in the North Atlantic and ! North Pacific, and also in the Straits of Magellan. New Zealand, and the S Chatham and Auckland Islands. In the ! southern parts of New Zealand this | bird exists in countless numbers. Other | muttonbirds, notably the black petrel * (Maiaqueus Parkinsoni) are to be found in New Zealand, the black petrel, how- i ever, being known in northern waters only, ft nests on Little Barrier Island and on several islands in Hauraki Gulf, but has never been recorded from i Canterbury. The greatest muttonbird breeding • places are the eastern islands of Bass Strait, where muttonbirds form the chief means of subsistence of those most interesting people the “ half-castes ” of Cape Barren Island, in whose veins . runs the blood of the now extinct aboriginies of Tasmania. They also nest on other islands belonging to Tasmania, such as the Great Actaeon, near Bruny Island. On the Australian coast the greatest muttonbird resort is Phillip Island, at ; the entrance to Westernport (Victoria), on which there are several large rookeries. The birds invariably nest on small islands, never on large islands or the mainland. On Phillip Island, where the habits of the bird have been closely studied ' by skilled observers, stray muttonbirds begin to arrive about November 20 of ' every year. The full flight takes place j -on November 26. On the evening of that day each year the muttonbirds return in tens of thousands and take possession of their burrows.

The first pairs arrive just at sunset, and the flight continues for an hour. The earlier arrivals come in and settle without a sound, but after a quarter of an hour occasional calls arc heard both from the birds overhead and from those in the burrows. In another quarter of an hour there is a tremendous uproar of screeches and calls, an amazing contrast to the noiseless, ghostlike flight of the early arrivals. For generation after bird generation the muttonbirds have been doing the same thing. Observations made nearly a century ago correspond almost exactly with those made on Phillip Island recently. In the ’thirties of last century R. 11. Davies studied the birds on Green Island, in Bass Straits. lie records the great flight of homing birds as beginning a few minutes before sunset on November 24. Observers on other Bass Straits islands place the “ focus of arrivals ” on November 2.5 or 26. Latitude makes little difference. At Great Actaeon Island, 400 miles to the southward of Phillip Island, the muttonbirds return during the last week in November. Out of forty-four birds marked on Phillip Island, twenty-two returned to their original burrows and six others were found in adjoining holes. In sonic cases only one bird of a marked pair had returned, bringing back a new mate. The rookery in which these birds were marked is 100 ft square, and contains about .500 holes. In one case a hole was filled in with sand and trampled hard. One evening a muttonbird ran on to this patch of sand, evidently looking for something. Five times it made a short tour of exploration. Then it and its mate scratched open their old burrow. The muttonbird lays but one egg, but it is a very big one. While the bird is about the size of a white magpie the egg is the size of a duck egg. At a Victorian country show thirty miles from Phillip Island a dozen muttonbird eggs were shown as duck eggs, and took first prize. After laying, the hen bird goes to sea for a week’s holiday while the male .sits on the egg. He goes away next week, and so turn about till the

egg is hatched, the bird off duty coming in at night to feed the other. When the young muttonbird is hatched it stays in the burrow til! April, being fed at night by the parents. It is then a ball of fat and heavier than either of the parents. Then the parents desert the young, and. unless the birders get them, the youthful muttonbirds grow lean and hungry, develop their wings, and clear out ten days or a fortnight after their parents. Stories told by early voyagers of the numbers of muttonbirds seen are almost incredible. Flinders describes meeting over 100 000,000 of them the calculates that there were 151,500.000 but on his own data the figure should be 132.000,000), near Three Hummock Island, in Bass Straits, in 1798. Forty years later Davies speaks of sailing through petrels all the way from Flinders Island to Tamar Heads, a distance of eighty- miles. Much more recently Captain Waller, of the steamer Westralia, steamed for thirty miles through flights of muttonbirds while on his way from New Zealand to Australia. They extended for miles on either hand, and when they settled on the water they covered it. The mutton birders have two harvests, the first in December, when they gather the eggs, and the second in March and April, when they collect the young birds. The “ egger ” uses a stick, at the end of which is a loop or pothook made of fencing wire. In 1923 ‘ eggers “ collected 60.000 eggs on Phillip Island, most of which were sold to cake and biscuit manufacturers in Melbourne. In Bass Straits the eggs are mainly for home consumption. The half-castes have robust appetites, like their aboriginal ancestors. A Quaker records that one of the latter are fifty eggs at a sitting. The young birds are salted or smokedried by the half-castes of the Straits, each family keeping anything from 500 upwards for its own consumption. The others are exported, some going as far as New Zealand, where a heavy duty was recently placed on Tasmanian muttonbirds. Large numbers of people gain a livelihood in the muttonbird industry which is conducted on Stewart Island. Each season thousands of the birds are caught and make tasty meals for people in the southern cities especially, and also in Christchurch and more northern centres. In southern towns the birds are very popular at supper following football matches! Pickled muttonbirds are sold retail in Tasmania at five for a shilling. The oil is used for lighting .and also in the leather trade. Twenty birds will yield a gallon of oil. Fortv of them 3-ield a pound of feathers and down. The half-castes use the feathers to stuff pillows, and so on; and there is a limited market outside. During the war when eiderdown was hard to get some experiments were made with muttonbird down. Even the snakes which are a by-pro-duct of the business are not entirelywasted. Long before the fashionable world woke up to snakeskin shoes some of the Cape Barren Islanders were shod with serpents. The need for giving the birds some protection has been recognised by both Victoria and Tasmania. No doubt they will continue for ages yet to come to return faithful to the day every year.