WOOD AND WASTE 93 



who must worry, but have still compunction 

 towards the flocks they have so often 

 worked and worry far afield and neigh- 

 bour's sheep whom they do not know. 



This is the particular instance to which I 

 refer. One afternoon, at feeding time, 

 Budget had, as usual, gorged his little ones; 

 he was then presented, in the hope he would 

 himself eat, with a good lump of bread. With 

 it in his bill, he ran off, leaving his chicks, 

 dipped it in his water pan — a very common 

 custom among Pukekos — and carried it to 

 the old hen. There, poking his head through 

 the bars of the coop, the bread was offered 

 with the ludicrous grovelling attitudes 

 alluded to already. The imprisoned matron, 

 though evidently from her stiff and stately 

 gait regarding the offer as an unwarrantable 

 liberty — they had, perhaps, never been pro- 

 perly introduced! — merely overlooked it as a 

 lamentable want of society manners that only 

 a Pukeko would be guilty of, and poor 

 Budget's kind, emotional eagerness was 

 completely disregarded ! 



Every country place in New Zealand, 

 where there are children, should rear a 



