MUTTON BIRD SEASON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 315, 31 May 1911, Page 3

MUTTON BIRD SEASON.

I THIS YEAR'S RETURNS. MODUS OPERANDI DESCRIBED. I Bluff, May 29.

Tlie mutton bird season for 1910 is almost at an end, and the natives of this portion of the Dominion who possess the right to make use of the variotu Titi Islands (or Mutton Bird Islands) are returning to the mainland with the numerous kits containing the season's eatch. A few parties had returned previous to this week, but the main portion of the mutton-birding army came back to civilisation in the ex-French gunboat Loyalty this week. The Loyalty does not nowadays fly the Republican tricolor, having been reduced in rank from a smart little man-o-war to a common trawler. Her passengers numbered thirty, and her cargo comprised kits containing about 77,000 birds, which at the current market quotation of 4%d represents a value of £1,443. The Loyalty called in at five islands—Potarna (30,000) Pohowaiti (25,000), Stage (8,000), Pukctakoe (5,000), and Cundy (3,000). The returning parties reportthat, although the catch is regarded as a fairly satisfactory one, the birds did not seem quite so plentiful as in former years. The vessels Dolly Vardon and Kekeno have yet to bring their returns to hand, but estimating them at 19,000 birds, and adding them to the Loyalty's 77,000 and some 19,000 which had come to hand previously, it is expected that the total will reach about 115,000 birds.

A well-known mutton-birder, in conversing with a Star representative, gave a few interesting comments upon the mutton bird industry. The mutton bird, he explained, visited the various islands of the Titi group in October, and after a week or so in putting their old nests into ship-shape order, they mate and leave the islands. They return again on the 20th November to lay their eggs. The birds, according to Maori lore, never fail to return on the 20th November, and they appear to make it their home-coming, just as does the pakeha make for his family domicile on the 2oth of December The natives state that the females commence laying their eggs upon that day without fail, year in and year out, and that (equally strange as it may seem) the young mutton birds are hatched on Christmas Day. They remain in their burrow-like nests, which the parent birds bring food in plenty. The youngsters quickly become very fat; in fact, too fat to fly. About April the old birds commence to pia their squibs on short allowance, -so as to make them consume their own fat. in order that by the loth or 17th ol May they will be a position to use their_ wings—both old and young commencing then to leave the islands ir. one long continuous stream. They make f*r the warmer north—millions of them—and the islands quickly become whoHy deserted. , Fr>om the 17th of May to the following October there is not a bird to be observed on the islands. It will thus been seen how methodical the palatable mutton bird is. The natives visit the islands about the end of March or the beginning of April, the various parties going to such islands of the group as the Native Land Court recently apportioned to them. After! getting camp into order, obtaining wide 'elp in which to preserve the mutton ! ;irds, mixing salt pickle, and gathering large quantities of ilax for kits, the mutton-birders are then ready for their prey. The islands are usually divided into two sections--the easier portion for the women and girls, and the more difficult ground for the men. As the squibs are being removed from their comfortable burrows they bite and claw vigorously, and unless the natives supply themselves with stout gloves or mit- ] tens they find their hands and wrists somewhat severely lacerated. The burrows vary in length from 18in. to Gft., and in the larger ones the squib 3 have to be removed by breaking into the burrows from top. The public of the Dominion labor under a popular delusion that the natives adopt blood-thirsty means of killing the birds—that is. by the effective method of biting their head's off—but such is not the case. In the olden days such a course was usually adopted, but in these modern days the necks of the plump little mutton birds are unceremoniously wrung. Every evening the "catch" is treated to plucking and cleaning, each bird is opened and split, and finally dumped into the preserving tubs. So the work goes on day after day until the month of May is half-way through, and operations have to be suspended. For a week or so prior to the 17th (departure day) the youngsters emerge from their burrows and try their wings roosting in the trees at night like so many barndoor pullets. The natives take advantage of such a good opportunity to hunt at night with torches, the light of which stupefies the birds and renders them liable to a prompt despatch. The birds are at regular intervals removed from pickle and placed in the kelp hags, which can accommodate about thirty birds apiece, and are then stored ready for removal by the vessels which come to take back the parties concerned in this annual migration. There are about twenty islands visited every year, and for centuries (according to Maori lore) the mutton bird has filled three of the four caruers of the Maori larder. The annual catch, when the Colac Bay returns are added to those of the Awarua parties, frequently reaches 200,000 birds, and at a uniform rate of P/A per bird the natives of this portion of the Dominion annually i remove from the Titi Islands about £3750 worth of mutton birds. However, that does not go far amongst 150 or 100 mutton-birders—roughly, about £25 apiece, without allowing for the expense which is necessary for transport to and from the islands and in stores and necessaries for their ten-weeks' stay upon the group. " >