THE MUTTON BIRD—A CORRECTION

Otaki Mail, 17 February 1922, Page 4

THE MUTTON BIRD—A CORRECTION

(To the Editor.) Sir, —A paragraph, emanating from the Otago Daily Times, is doing tlie rounds of the papers just now to sri'i effect that the mutton birds are beginning their northern Might. This is entirely incorrect, and for that reas >o "the paragraph is- worth reprodu .mg in full. It is as follows: "The mutton birds are at present" hying north m their thousands and thousands, on the way to their winter home, and they afforded an interesting sight on Thursday, as they Hew in massed formation over the sea some miles out from tiie St. Kiicia beach. Students of bird life consider that tne i oirds are making their migratory \ {light a little earlier this year. Where J .noy go during-their absence from the j Dominion no one appears to know, i The birds return to the southern nesting places about October and Novem- \ i,er." As a matter of fact, the incu- j _ bat-ion season is just over. .The eggs j are laid during the last two weeks in ; November, and hatched in January, ~nd could one visit the breeding grounds ol the -petrel Just now lie j .voufd find in - each hole a young mut- ' lonbird chick, two or three weeks old, and for all the world like, a ball of fluffy down. The birds seen off Hie Otago coast a lew days ago are the parent birds scouring tlie ocean waste for food for their young. Instead of maliiiig the ' northern flight, these oirds, if closely watched, will be found to take a southerly course as tlie evening draws in, and just at dusk will be found making a landing on the rugged points on the south and south-west coasts ol Stewart, island, and the numerous islets that lie 10 iliu east and south-west. The paent birds will continue their maternal ministrations for fully two months yet until the fledglings have fully dej vcloped and gained their full coating ! of feathers and able to battle for theinj selves with the elements of nature, it is then that the grand flight of the uaI rent birds takes place—about the nndi die or towards the end of April. And there are no spectacular effects about it, nor is it done in the full light Ot day. m the darkest hours of me night the birds, guided by some mysterious instinct, spread their wings for northern platitudes, and are not seen again till the following October, when they return as suddenly to their Old nesting places: Meantime the young birds, deprived of sustenance by the departure of their parents, lose their surplus Xal. and soon become lit, for llight, and at the end ot the first week in May they, too, follow in ilie wake of the older birds on Hie | northern trek. Here Nature's iiidomij table law providing for the survival 'of the fittest holds good, lor the I youngsters that are too fat or too weak to fly quickly fal la prey to the j nellies and moUyhawks" waiting on the dark waters below, but those thai stand the test wing their way to safety in the darkness of the night with the warmer dhnes of the north las their objective.—l am, etc., OBSERVEH.