THK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 163 



the root of a tree. A similar habit was noticed with regard to 

 the Noisy Pitta, which lives largely on snails, and it seems to have 

 its favourite stone for breaking them on, somewhat similar to the 

 European Song Thrush, and heaps of broken land shells were sure 

 to be found there. 



On our return to camp we found the six natives who had 

 promised to go out collecting all day had, practically speaking, 

 done nothing except getting a few Scrub Turkey eggs for 

 themselves, and not only that, but one lazy individual, named 

 Blucher, had persuaded the others that they had been away long 

 enough, and they had therefore determined to return on the 

 fourth day, instead of staying ten as we had agreed upon. As 

 the men had been paid beforehand we had no hold over them, 

 and perforce had to return when they did, as we could not carry 

 our luggage down without their assistance. During the night we 

 heard what was probably the Rufous Owl (Ninox rufa) hooting. 

 Our dog got excited, and ran a short distance into the scrub 

 barking on two or three occasions, and the natives declared that 

 he smelt a Dingo, but we did not hear or see one. I burnt some 

 magnesium ribbon, and let the flare light up the scrub to amuse 

 and assure the natives. A rat kept gnawing at our damper 

 during the early part of the night, and ran over one of my com- 

 panions' faces in the darkness, so one of us quietly got a short 

 stick ready, poising it over where the sound came from, and I 

 then lighted the magnesium ribbon, which showed the rat's where- 

 abouts, and before he recovered from his astonishment he was 

 killed, and was found to be the long-haired species, Hapalotis 

 hirsutus. We made our fire-shovel, spoons, plates, and candle- 

 stick out of bark. The number of different kinds of trees was 

 considerable, many being hard and others soft wood. Some 

 splendid examples of kauri pine grew close by, and on picking up 

 some branches of a dead scrub tree, which had fallen probably 

 many years before, we found it exceedingly hard and perfectly 

 sound, and on putting them on the fire they burnt readily and 

 brightly, emitting black smoke, which smelt exactly like pitch 

 when burning, and at the end of the branches the heat of the fire 

 caused a substance to exude from a small cavity in the centre 

 which was quite black and had all the appearance and consistency 

 of pitch, and whenever we wanted to have a bright fire we had 

 only to put on a few of these sticks. When burnt they left a 

 white ash. I brought a sample of the wood with me, but could 

 not find a living tree that I could identify with the dead one, 

 although probably they were plentiful enough; it is locally known 

 as the Kerosene Tree. Softwood trees on dying are very soon 

 riddled with holes by larvae of the large black and other beetles. 

 The natives are very fond of this larvae, and cut up softwood 

 decaying tops in the hope of finding some, but the hardwood 



