The Fern Bird 



I HE Fern Bird, like several 

 other species at Tutira, has 

 ver,y much increased in num- 

 bers, and has adapted himself 

 to the changed conditions of 

 the run. Years ago I wrote that in the 

 many raupo beds around the lake, the bird 

 might be heard, but that the title "Fern 

 Bird" was a misnomer, for the species at 

 Tutira was never found in the bracken. 



The run had been, and was then, still 

 to a great extent covered with deep fern. 

 This gro^^'th was swept periodically by 

 immense fires, continuing to burn day and 

 iiight sometimes for a week at a time. 

 After one of these conflagrations the face 

 of the country was quite black and desolate, 

 and all ground birds and feeble fliers de- 

 stroyed. After 1895, however, the stocking 

 of the land began to affect the fern, the 



