WOOD AND WASTE 147 



exuberance of its growth began to lessen, 

 and the fern fires became less frequent and 

 less sweei^ing. Season by season the 

 transformation became more marked, and 

 as the fern became thinner and more 

 dwarfed, so did the Fern Bird increase 

 and multiply and replenish the earth. He 

 has found shelter and safety and food 

 supply over poor lands, and along the 

 edges of hundreds of boggy creeks, spots 

 now comparatively safe, but fire-swept and 

 utterly desolated in the early eighties and 

 nineties. On Tutira he has at last truly 

 earned his name of Fern Bird, and every- 

 where nowadays through the areas of low 

 fern can be heard his metallic ''click," 

 "click," in isolated syllables. His other 

 favourite haunt and breeding ground is 

 amongst the damp flats, where cutty grass 

 grows rank and thick. Four nests were 

 got this season, and all of them were in 

 this growth. Like other species on the run, 

 they wax and wane in numbers, but during 

 the last couple of seasons have become very 

 plentiful. 



