^''^,'^-_,^' J M'l.icAN, lUtsh-ninls of New Zealand. 3 



adjoining open-bottonicd t;i\vlRT;i and manuka — I found that 

 charming songster the W'ood-lvohin {Miro australis) at home, 

 and in some numbers. This — the tawliera country 1 shall 

 designate it — varied from about 1,500 Ui 2,300 feet in elevation 

 above sea level. 



Adjacent to, but to the west of this again. I spent the early 

 spring (till 14th Octol)er), amid the heavy mixed tawa, with rimu 

 and white- wood and a tangled unciergrowth of supplejack and 

 lawyer-vines, which clothed the spurs that led to Maunga-Haumia's 

 highest })art. Heie the Pigeon and the Tui were more ])lentiful 

 than in the other parts. The lower portions of these spurs, 

 totalling 2,000 acres, were felled the following year (1907), but, as 

 stated above, the higher parts have been left undisturbed. 



The winter of 1907 (27th March to 27th October) was spent 

 some 4 to 6 miles to the south of my spring camp of the previous 

 year, upon the southern spurs, where mixed bush prevailed, with 

 perhaps more rimu {Dacrydium cupressinmn) and more white- 

 wood. There was, generally speaking, more undergrowth, but no 

 extensive birch forest as in 1906. Still, the very tops of the 

 highest ridges had a fair sprinkling of these trees, and the tawari 

 was common with them. The altitude ran from about 1,600 to 

 3,500 feet — the highest part of the felling. 



In 1906 I was right in the virgin bush, and hardly ever saw 

 the clearings ; V)ut in 1907 I daily saw something of cleared 

 country of various ages, and so learnt something of what was 

 going on in the way of the advancement of civilization and its 

 attendant consequences. To the west of the felling of 1907 on 

 the southern spurs still stretches a very extensive forest, which, 

 however, will come down before many years are past. To the 

 east lay last year's felling, burnt and sown and feeding sheep. 

 Next this again was what was once similar forest — thousands of 

 acres — now in grass from four to seven years old — a network, in 

 parts, of half-burnt, rotting trunks, with patches of what is 

 called " second growth " — a scrubby mass of shoots from stumps 

 and seeds where the fire has not been quite hot enough to kill all 

 life. As a rule, after a good hot fire there will be little of this ; 

 but sometimes considerable patches spring up, principally in damp 

 gullies, and have, of course, to be felled after a few years. These 

 patches, if within a mile or two of the main bush, are much fre- 

 quented by the Pied Tit, Bell-Bird, and Tui. who, in spring 

 especially, find much food suited to their tastes, 'llus southern 

 bush was in one sense more open than that of 1906, as a long, 

 narrow valley leading into it from the cleared country had been 

 grassed by wild cattle after the bush had been torn out and buried 

 by the onrush of the large slip mentioned above, which, after 

 starting off the left face of the distant hill, tore down the valley 

 for at least 2 miles. At the spot shown in illustration (Plate 

 IIL), it is estimated the original gully has been filled up to a 

 depth of 30 feet or more ; and, as the valley is of fair width now, 

 it can be imagined what an enormous amount of dtbris came 



