WOOD AND WASTE 85 



They were, I daresay, some twenty to forty 

 hours old. As I then believed that a hen 

 would not feed them, for the little creatures 

 are accustomed to be nourished directly 

 from the mother's bill, they were kept 

 warm in flannels, and porridge and milk 

 ladled out to them from the blunt end of 

 a nib. 



Even then, at that age, and under these 

 adverse conditions, they survived, until one 

 day their bowl was upset and all but three 

 escaped out of an open door, never to be 

 seen again. The survivors were given then 

 to a hen, and when she clucked and broke 

 up food, it sometimes happened that the 

 stuff would stick to her bill, and thus 

 gradually was a connection established 

 between her call and a supply of food. 



The Pukeko chicks were put under her 

 late in the evening, and I am told her 

 expression of startled astonishment when 

 they began to pipe and cheep w^as very 

 ludicrous. Of the three surviving the acci- 

 dent to the bowl, a pair thrived and seemed 

 to be in a fair way of growing up, until 

 the smaller suddenly dropped dead one day 



