140 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



make clear and plain what is invisible to the naked eye — that 

 is, as if the naked human eye at its highest standard was the 

 acme, the ne jjlus ultra, of vision. For such use of photo- 

 graphy has long been known — at least to astronomers ; for 

 hundreds of stars, some of great magnitude, yet invisible 

 through the best telescopes, are made known to us thereby, 

 and have been correctly mapped. 



Moreover (and without entering on the wonderful and 

 complex and perfect physical mechanism of the human eye), 

 we may see in the animal kingdom, especially in the class of 

 birds, how vastly their powers of seeing exceed those of man. 

 Let us briefly consider this, as it contains an immense field for 

 interesting and pleasurable thought, and some of the objects 

 are common, near at hand, and easilj^ comprehended — omitting 

 the well-known owls, with their strong nocturnal pov/ers of 

 vision far surpassing that of man. Take, for instance, the 

 common Maori kingfisher (Halcyon i)a{7a72..s = Kotaretare). I 

 have watched this bird, or the pair of them, at the season of 

 rearing their young, quietly perched on an outstretched dead 

 branch of a lofty timber tree overhanging a streamlet, 50ft.- 

 60ft. high, when suddenly, like an arrow, the bird descends 

 into the water below, and immediately emerges with a tiny 

 fish in its bill. So, also, I have at other times noticed them 

 to act on a cricket, beetle, or lizard in the grass and low herb- 

 age. A still commoner show of the superior sight of birds, 

 even when on the wing soaring on high, is also everywhere 

 around us exhibited — over land by the hawks discerning a 

 mouse running among the fern, or a young duckling or other 

 vv'ater-bird among the long sedges and rushes of the swamps ; 

 over the sea by the various species of gulls and terns, who, 

 notwithstanding the rippling and the colour of the water, 

 descend with rapidity like a leaden ball beneath the wavelets, 

 and arise with their prey. But all this is yet surprisingly 

 surpassed by the giant vulture — the condor of the Andes. 

 Here I will, with pleasure, quote the natural and admirable 

 words of Darwin, who had so frequently witnessed them in 

 their natural haunts : " The condors may often be seen at a 

 great height, soaring over a certain spot in the most graceful 

 circles. On some occasions I am sure that they do this only 

 for pleasure, but on others the Chileno countryman tells you 

 that they are Avatching a dying animal, or the puma devour- 

 ing its prey. . . . When an animal is killed in the 

 country it is well known that the condors, like other carrion- 

 vultures, soon gain intelligence of it, and congregate in an 

 inexplicable manner. In most cases it must not be over- 

 looked that the birds have discovered their prey, and have 

 picked the skeleton clean, before the flesh is in the least 

 degree tainted. . . . Often when lying down to rest on 



