WOOD AND WASTE 129 



noon over undried dews, or at an earh^ 

 hour on the sunny side of a clump of 

 Mahoe, he will be catching flies, while still 

 the sward is silver mist, and while yet the 

 skies are of paler blue. In summer he 

 loves to hunt above the limestone runnels 

 that trickle and drop from pool to terraced 

 pool, deep in the sombre shade of groves of 

 manuka. 



Quite in the open, too, over the bubbled 

 brooks, and just above their sheltering 

 fringe of overarching growth, he flutters 

 and flits in the fullest sun, dancing like 

 a gnat or ranging at random like a 

 wandering butterfly. In winter hundreds 

 and hundreds of Fantails move from the 

 uplands in a vertical migration towards 

 Tutira lake, there to regale themselves 

 during the cold weeks on the copious 

 water insect crop. 



It is not uncommon during the winter 

 days to have a Fantail enter the house by 

 an open door or window, returning morning 

 after morning to hunt for house flies, 

 fluttering round the cornices, perching on 

 the pictures, neither courting attention or 



