SEA BIRD FOUND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 July 1941, Page 7

SEA BIRD FOUND

PICKED UP AT IHURAUA. A sea bird was picked up recently on the property of Mr J. L. Heckler, Ihuraua. It was a specimen of dove petrel, in general colour grey-blue above and white below. Several species are found around the New Zealand coast, and some breed on islands off both the North and South Islands. During severe storms this bird sometimes suffers severely, and beaches are occasionally littered with their bodies, and it is not unusual for specimens to be picked up far inland, as was the case with the bird found on Mr Heckler’s property. An interesting feature of the coloration of the dove petrel is that against the sea this bird is practically invisible. This fact was well brought out in a photograph taken by an American 'scientist of hundreds of these birds in a flock flying past a ship. When the photograph was printed the dove petrels could not be seen. The invisibility of the dove petrel’s coloration was later brought under the notice of the American army authorities.