160 BIRDS OF THE WATER 



throat from but a few yards' distance 

 swelling with song entirely inaudible. 



Excuses have been given for our failures 

 with the Tui, both in wretched negatives 

 and scanty notes. The honest truth has 

 been kept to the end. It was shearing 

 time, and an extraordinary instance it is of 

 the inherent perversity of human affairs 

 that shearing should occur just at the busy 

 period of the year, when all the birds are 

 nesting, and during the very height of th3 

 breeding season. To it the Tui has been 

 sacrificed; the fact is I had to be about the 

 shed and sheep yards when really I should 

 have been working. 



