76 MUTTON BIRDS 



the cross piece and buried firmly in 

 the ground. Their beautiful tops — those- 

 ''fountains of green" — then completely veiled 

 both man and machine, and on my stage I 

 sat or stood in a verdant grove of pendant pine. 

 Some fifteen feet distant stood the kamahi trunk, 

 penetrable by four different openings, the 

 largest and main entrance facing north-west, the 

 second, a knot-hole,through which the hen used to 

 spy and listen ; the third might have been a bolt 

 hole, opening just above the tangled roots; the 

 fourth was the funnel or chimney of the hollow 

 bole. Parallel with the kamahi bole and about 

 two feet distant grew a perfectly upright 

 branchless totara sapling. It was, perhaps, 

 four inches in diameter, and was the Kaka's 

 usual route of approach. The exit of the bird 

 was by way of the rough exterior surface of the 

 kamahi. The erection of the stage had mean- 

 time been carefully watched by the hen parrot, 

 of whom, on the high, bare boughs we now and 

 then obtained a glimpse. We could see her 

 eyeing our work from above, not shy or timid 

 in an}^ degree, only extremely cautious and 

 anxious for very thorough investigation. I 

 found, in fact, that in the Kaka I had to cope 

 with a singularly wily bird, and soon began to 

 doubt if I should succeed in coming to close 

 quarte]'s and getting within camera range. 

 Neither of the parents evinced the least anxiety 

 about feeding their young, and I knew from the 

 absence of the nestlings' hunger call, that they 

 were equally indifferent. They were fed, seem- 

 ingly, like the folk in Swift's tale, their immense 

 stomachs crammed in one act. 



Early on a March morning, cloudless and still,. 



