PKEFACE 



I found, too, that he was gifted with the 

 most imperturbable of tempers, "a stoic of the 

 woods, a man without a tear." 



No gales that kept us from work could ruffle 

 him. The misfortunes that happened to our 

 nestlings, nests, and eggs, he could accept with 

 a jDatience impossible to emulate. 



He, too, was an enthusiast, and even waist 

 deep in water chilled with melted hail, with the 

 knowledge of a rotten l)ridge in front and a 

 rising river to swim, was still able to note the 

 discovery of a pair of Orange-Wattled Crows in 

 the flooded scrub. 



I acknowledge he beat me there. If I had 

 seen a Moa I should have let it pass, and was but 

 too glad to reach the hut, minus a boot lost in the 

 river, with one foot tied up in my sou-wester, 

 sans camera and gear, soaked with three swims, 

 and chattering with cold. 



Archdeacon Herbert Williams has kindly 

 read my proof sheets, and I should like specially 

 to record my gratitude to him for that noble 

 word — retenuitestifectation. 



The prints from which the blocks have been 

 prepared are the work of Mr. G. F. Green, 

 who has taken more trouble and expended more 

 care on them than I myself, to whom they belong, 

 would have done. He has turned out work 

 incalculably better than anything I could have 

 shown, and has often proved that, in spite of the 

 proverb, a silk purse can be made out of a sow's 

 ear. I consider myself most fortunate in again 

 having been able to get his help. 



Mr. Green has also on my behalf in regard to 

 business, matters ^wrestled,' if my friends, 



