WOOD AND WASTE 65 



Weka chicks are very attractive little 

 creatures, and in early life quite black. 

 Like young Pukeko, they reach maturity 

 very slowly, and probably it is only the 

 earlier nesting birds that rear a second 

 brood. 



In his Birds of New Zealand Duller treats 

 of the Weka at considerable length for the 

 benefit of naturalists of a future day, who 

 will, he says, "seek in vain for the birds 

 themselves, and to whom, as we can readily 

 imagine, every recorded particular will 

 possess the same interest that now attaches 

 to Leguat's rude account of the Didine 

 bird of Rodriquez." 



This lament, however, was certainly pre- 

 mature, if not altogether uncalled for, and 

 a species so remarkable in the possession 

 of ample wings which 3^et are incapable of 

 flight from long disuse, is likely long to 

 gratify the moralist.* 



*NoTE. — The New Zealand Year Book of 1909 supplies tlie 

 following figures in regard to the members of the many religious 

 bodies in the Dominion: — Churcli of England, 368,065; Presby- 

 terians, 203,597; Roman Catholics, 126,995, etc., etc. The pride oi 

 place in the first-mentioned Church may well be in part ascribed 



10 



