MUTTON BIRDS RETURN FROM THE NORTH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 44, 28 September 1949, Page 5

MUTTON BIRDS RETURN FROM THE NORTH

Known to the Maori as the Titi but to the scientist as the Puffinus Griseus or sooty shearwater the mutton bird, as it is more generally known, has finished its long annual migration from the northern Hemisphere and is now settling around the New Zealand coast. Birds have been seen lately in parts of the Bay of Plenty and many have been noticed on Whale Island preparing for the nesting season.

' While the Godwit is known more for its annual long trip from Siberia the mutton bird is more renowned in New Zealand as a delicacy. To the Maori it is highly valued as a food. Few people know that the mutton bird has just as long a migration every year but, unlike the Godwit, nests in New Zealand. Sustained Flight A member of the same family as the wandering Stormy Petrel and the imperial Albatross the mutton bird shares with them the powers of sustained flight and, like them, inhabits the open sea far from land, states the Forest and Bird. It is not peculiar to New Zealand, but as a breeding bird is known from subAntarctic South America to the seas of the Cape of Good Hope.

From sailors and other'* sea travellers in this area the bird gained the name of the sooty shearwater. Its nesting places in New Zealand seas are to be found from the Three Kings, .in the far north, to Macquarie Island, 600 miles south of the mainland. The centre of this area and the most densely inhabited by the bird is the region of Foveaux Strait and Stewart Island. Annual Hunting Season

These birds are found on most islands in the Bay of Plenty and on some points on the mainland. Europeans are prohibited from taking the birds for food. In each region there is a season for Maori hunters, the one in this part of the country being in February but further south it is earlier. On Whale sland toe birds are caught each year by Maoris who stay for a week after being taken across from Whakatane. The birds nest in holies and only the young chicks are taken as food. They have an unusual but very pleasant taste in which the tang of fish is most noticeable.

The mutton bird arrives in New Zealand from the north during September. This spring migration is very spectacular and for a month after their arrival most of the birds are seen at sea. In autumn they leave again, the adults and the surviving young travelling up the coast and away to the north, eventually reaching a winter home in the seas near Alaska and Siberia. Although present in northern waters during the northern summer they do not nest there, but undergo a period of moult and intensive feeding before returning in countless thousands to the south. Reserve of Fat When hatched the downy chick is fed by both parents on nutritious marine organisms, and it not only increases in size but builds up a reserve of fat. It is believed that the chick also builds up a special stomach oil, which enables it to undergo a period of fast after its parents have departed for the north and before its own feathers have grown sufficiently to enable it to fly-