10 Dove, Feathered Friends in Neiv Zealand. [ 2nd"hiiy 



I had the good fortune to see on the wing one of the Long- 

 tailed Cuckoos {Urodyiiaviis taite^ilis), a really fine bird, well 

 marked, with strong tail development, as the name implies. 

 This was in the vicinity of Lake Wakatipu, an immense basin 

 of snow-fed water, mountain guarded, situated in the south-west 

 of Otago Province, To the westward, again, is Lake Te Anau, 

 another immense sheet of fresh water, and in pushing from 

 Te Anau to Milford Sound on foot, through forest country, I 

 saw many more of the native birds. 



The Government has, with magnificent liberality and far- 

 sighted wisdom, reserved here the immense area of 600,000 

 acres (1,000 square miles) as a National Park and heritage to 

 the people for ever. In this splendid tract of forest and 

 mountain, river and lake, the native fauna are strictly protected 

 — no sporting or collecting allowed — and the benefit of this 

 measure is evident, even to the passing traveller, in the tameness 

 of the birds about the track. 



The Maori Hen, or VVeka {Ocydroiims ausiralis), a bird the 

 size of a domestic fowl, which runs but does not fly, will cross 

 the narrow forest path, just in front of one, without any hurry. 

 With its head and long beak carried well forward, and its queer, 

 uneven sort of gait, it is a comical sight. It is the clown of the 

 bird realm, and will hang about the huts waiting for scraps, 

 chasing its brethren and giving them a dig with its sharp beak, 

 ever and anon breaking into the sharp cry, " Wee kaar, wee 

 kaar," from which it obtained its Maori appellation. One 

 individual, which had an injured leg and was much persecuted 

 by the stronger ones, was seen daily at the hut on Lake Mintaro, 

 and was rather a favourite with the hut-keeper, a young English- 

 man, who knew when his protege was there even when the door 

 was closed, on account of a peculiar cry which the bird had, 

 differing from that of the others, as the querulous voice of an 

 ailing child differs from the lusty tones of those in health. 

 The Weka has a partiality for anything bright, and if it gets 

 a chance, when the keeper is temporarily absent or has forgotten 

 to close the door, it will walk into the hut and fossick round for 

 something to play with — a fork or spoon, a tin pannikin, or 

 anything shining and attractive. 



Another large bird which is plentiful in the forests of this 

 grand National Park is one of the few remaining species of the 

 Cockatoo-like Parrots. Of this ancient genus, Nestor, the Phillip 

 Island species is already extinct, and the Kea is becoming rare 

 in New Zealand on account of its persecution by the sheep- 

 farmers, who are persuaded that it kills the sheep in searching 

 for the kidney-fat of those animals. That the Kea is guilty of 

 this is, however, disputed by many, and the Philosophical Society 

 of Wellington has, I rejoice to say, taken up the cudgels on its 

 behalf. The species mentioned above as still existing in fair 



