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Te Ao Hou, December 1960, Page 63

(Continued from page 54) to demand in the South. The Tasmanian bird is smaller however and as it is cured in saltpetre instead of salt it is not as palatable as the New Zealand variety. Each year the Stewart Island Maoris catch about 300,000 birds but less than one-third of these reach North Island markets. Because of this there have been suggestions from time to time that Tasmanian birds again be imported, especially to Auckland and the north. The present high price (3/9 in Wellington) has had an effect of evening distribution through the country, however, and unless there is a shortage of local birds it seems unlikely that any serious effort will be made to reintroduce Tasmanian birds. Now let us take a look at the Titi himself. All migratory birds have an inate sense of timing which prompts them at certain seasons to move to other places and because we are familiar with this we accept it as normal. The mutton bird has several unique characteristics however, which to laymen are completely inexplicable and which make them a fascinating study for the ornithologist. For instance incredible though it may sound experienced birders insist that on the 12th September every year one will see no sign of the Titi but that on the 13th September the islands are seething with them. Their arrival has been explained to me thus: “We were fishing the South Cape (of Stewart Island). It was a grey overcast morning but the sea was calm, easy and silent. All of a sudden we became aware of a gathering noise—a humming sound like thousands of violas, ‘cellos and bass strings. As it grew in intensity we felt as though an almost supernatural force was building into the storm to end all storms. The adjacent calm served only to intensify the majesty—and ominousness of the moment. We searched the clouds seeking the direction from which the storm would descend. Then from out of the indeterminate gloom an horizon wide cloud of ineffable blackness arose—a cloud both ominous and awe-inspiring. As it grew nearer, and as the humming intensified it became evident that this was no phenomenon of nature—no storm—but simply the first flight of the Titi migration coming to breed in New Zealand waters.” The man who described this sight to me saw it again several times and on the 13th September each time. They nest in burrows and holes under the rocks and occasionally at North Island breeding places even share the burrow, in a state of armed truce, with the Tuatara. Parent birds return to the same burrow or hole each year about mid-October and spend about a month cleaning and repairing the nest. This work is done at night and is accompanied, I believe, by a tremendous uproar of screeching and groaning. This period of renovation and nest building is also occupied in courtship and I am told that the young birds who are not yet ready for breeding spend this period in make believe housekeeping and courtship without achieving family. They seem not unlike human children who “play house” when they are young. Muttonbirders—not supported by modern scientists—say that on the 25th November, all adult females with only a very few exceptions lay an egg. Only one egg is laid by each bird and both the male and female incubate it. A few eggs are laid on the 26th November and an even smaller number are laid on the 27th November, but after the 27th egg laying ceases entirely. This sounds incredible but experienced birders assure me that it is a fact and I have seen it confirmed by the late Judge Jackson Palmer on the official Maori Land Court title file for the Titi Islands. The eggs laid on the 25th November are said to hatch on Christmas Day and those laid on the 26th and 27th November are hatched on the 26th and 27th December. Once the chicks are hatched both parents stuff it with food at least until the middle of March. During this time the chicks literally become little balls of fat covered with a soft silken down. I am told that the chicks are fed from partially digested and regurgitated—food from the adults. It seems that the parents go foraging and then on return to the nest fly into the ground with a heavy bump, rather like a plane crash landing. This bump causes them to bring the food up whereupon it is eaten by the every-hungry chicks. The Titi needs about its own weight in food each day, the food consisting to a large extent of sardines, but shrimps and other seafood is also eaten.