184 BIRDS OF THE WATER 



lost their lustre and gloss. The whole 

 plumage, too, seemed to be thinner and not 

 to fit and overlap with the former exact 

 nicety. The birds, in fact, looked compara- 

 tively shabby and dingy. We noticed, too, 

 that their appetites fell off, and by the first 

 of March they were in poor plight. ''Uncle 

 Harry's" moult, perhaps because he was 

 later hatched, seemed to come on faster, 

 and a noticeable crop of quite new quills 

 appeared about the base of his beak. There 

 is no native bush close to the house at 

 Tutira, and the only shelter for Pigeons 

 smallish clumps of pinus insignis, through 

 which heavy wind and rain can easily 

 penetrate. As about then the Pigeons were 

 evidently feeling the bad, wet weather — 

 "Uncle Harry," indeed, was found on the 

 ground one day in a very wretched condition 

 — the three were again put back into the 

 aviary, where there was good shelter, and 

 where the birds could feed out of the rain.* 



*NoTE. — This housing of the Pigeons was done just in 

 time, as on the 30th March 480 points were registered, 836 on 

 the 31st, and, on April 1st, 341. 



