188 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
found it unnecessary to ask any Government concessions; that 
we were entirely content with the way certain citizens of Auck- 
land had helped us out. We were to learn later of the great 
courtesies and material aid that would be ours when we reached 
the capital, Wellington. 
The very next day I received a telegram from Mr. J. Hislop, 
Under Secretary of Internal Affairs, informing me that Mr. 
Hamilton, of the Dominion Museum at Wellington, had been 
given a permit to collect birds, and was coming to Auckland to 
arrange for a trip with Dr. Stoner, the material secured to be 
given to our museum. Several letters had passed between us and 
I was afraid that our ornithologist would have little opportunity 
to secure specimens. Indeed I learned afterwards that this was a 
very unusual favor on the part of the New Zealand authorities 
and that Dr. Stoner was perhaps the first foreigner who had been 
granted such a concession. The arrangement was entirely satis- 
factory as Mr. Hamilton proved to be a very good guide and 
ornithologist, and gave his services also in preparing the bird- 
skins after they had been collected. 
Thomas and Glock left on July 15 for a month’s trip over New 
Zealand. They had carefully planned their itinerary and were 
bent on covering as much as possible of both the North and South 
Islands. We did not see them again until shortly before we sailed 
for home. 
Stoner, Wylie and I got up early the morning of July 19 for 
the trip to Rakino. The launch Mavis was waiting for us at the 
pier and was a very able little boat, loaned for the occasion by 
Mr. Allison. We greatly enjoyed the run of twenty miles down 
the harbor and out into the Hauraki Gulf as the day was bright 
and sunny. Arriving at Rakino we found that there was no small 
boat to take us ashore and that the tide was too low for us to 
land at the little pier. So Skipper Foster ran her nose against 
the rock and we managed to climb down over the bows and get 
a footing on its slippery surface. The tide, although low, was not 
low enough, for the best collecting, which of course is always at the 
lowest. possible ebb, comes only two or three days each month. 
Climbing over the rocks and around the headlands was hard work 
and there was no good beach. We found a few interesting things 
and some starfish were brought by the little bare-footed children 
of the caretaker of the island. How they could walk on bare feet 
over these rocks covered with sharp barnacles, worm-tubes and 
