Identifier : handbookofbirdso00litt ( find matches )
Title : A handbook of the birds of Tasmania and its dependencies
Year : 1910 ( 1910s )
Authors : Littler, Frank Mervyn
Subjects : Birds -- Australia Tasmania
Publisher : Launceston, Tasmania : F.M. Littler
Contributing Library : American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor : Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
t have been a few thousand on the island every
night and a couple of hundred during the day. A pair that had
taken up their abode among the stones of the foundation of the
hut, and were kept under the closest observation, never left their
retreat for sixty hours. During the day they remained silent, but
towards evening the inale would commence to croon, and later on
both birds joined in the general discord reigning over the island.
It was found that the first bird came up from the sea at 6.30
p.m., the party at each landing-place first consisting of about a
dozen birds. These would sit on the rocks preening their feathers.
At 6.35 the first real contingent would arrive, at 6.40 the second,
and at 6.45 the third and last. When all the birds had landed
and more or less preened themselves, a commencement would be
made over the rocks to the rookeries on the top or sides of the
island. On no occasion were any birds seen to move inland until
the last bird of the last batch was up on the rocks. Also night
Text Appearing After Image:


THE AUTHOR, WITH PAIR OF LITTLE PENGUINS, NINTH ISLAND
Photo. by J. G. Littler

BIRDS OF TASMANIA. 211

after night, rough or smooth, the various batches arrived punc-
tually to the minute. On a calm evening the birds could be seen
moving through the water some five or six hundred yards from the
shore, where they would show as a ripple on the surface. As the
birds came closer their heads could be distinguished just above
the surface. It was usual for them to wait until a roller washed
them on to the low rocks at their landing-places; then, before the
backwash had time to carry them away, they would rapidly
scramble to safety, using feet, flippers, and bills. One evening a
party of birds were slightly late, and they seemed to know it, for
the speed with which they came through the water was truly
astonishing—they gave one the impression of miniature torpedoes.
80 well did they make up for lost time that they were but a few
seconds behind schedule time.
On some evenings no sound was uttered by the birds either
when moving through the water or after landing and on their
way towards thr rookeries.

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