File:The Australian Museum magazine (1921) (19729592303).jpg

Title: The Australian Museum magazine
Identifier: australianmuseum1192123aust (find matches)
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Australian Museum; Australian Museum
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: Sydney, Australian Museum
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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136 THE AUSTRALIAxH MUSEUM MAGAZINE.
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A fully fledged chicken and its mother in a crevice formed by a lava bubble in the basalt cliff. Before leaving the nest, the young reaches a size equal to that of its parent. Photo—A. K. McCuUoch. and tail outstretched, the latter bent up- ward, and then sheer oft' again as though warned oft" by a sitting mate. The adult bird is covered with a satin- like plumage which is principally white in colour, but wliich in the male is suf- fused with a wonderful delicate pink over the whole body, leaving the head white. A black eyebrow and some black-tipped fea- thers near the tail, a large scarlet bill and bluish legs add to the beauty of this aerial dandy. Tlie steers are scarlet, and their curious form and rarity cause them t(. be somewhat sought after for millinery purposes. "Tailing" therefore provides both thrills and profit for some of the better eliinbers among the island boys who annually scour the more accessible cliffs in search of the nesting birds. As these usually sit with their heads in the dark and their tails projecting from the cavities, the steers can be plucked out al most without disturbing their owners. They are then carried in the climber's hatband until lie retui'us to safer levels. The young Boatswain Bird, as in uiany other sea bii'ds, differs considerably in ap- pearance from its parents. Each feather of the upper surfaces is marked with one to three broad bars of black, which offer a striking contrast to the pure white of the rest of the plumage. The bill is : )aty-))lue, and the long tail feathers are undeveloped. During the earlier part of our stay on the island, we found all the lu'sts tenanted by birds with only eggs or newly hatched young, and as we wanted a young but fully Hedged specimen to show the sjjcckled plumage, we had to pay them periodical visits lo ensure securing one with just these characters. A violent gale churned up the seas to such a height that several chickens we had hoped to collect v/ere waslied out of their nests, but others were found after some little search, which we visited regularly, and watched the de-

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