FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 259 
look for birds and insects; at one halt we shot a bell bird which 
was feeding on the reddish-brown berries of a shrubby tree (Panax 
sp.). In the dense bush, fantails were common and very tame, 
allowing one to approach within three or four feet of them. Small 
flocks of tuias or parson-birds were seen in the tops of the tall 
trees. Tomtits, silver-eyes and gray warblers were fairly common. 
A shot was taken at a morepork owl but the bird escaped. 
The Mamaku bush, seventeen miles northwest of Rotorua by 
rail, and 1885 feet above sea level, afforded the best example I 
saw of a typical New Zealand forest. Magnificent miro, tawa and 
remu trees, many of them over a hundred feet high and covered 
with mosses and lichens, were being cut down by expert choppers. 
Remu wood is much in demand for building purposes in the 
colony, and tawa proves to be valuable for butter boxes since it 
imparts no odor to the butter. 
After a tree is felled, one or two men trim it up and cut away 
the surrounding small trees and brush. The huge log is then 
*‘snaked out’’ to the logging train a half-mile away by a donkey- 
engine. Considerable ingenuity is demanded on the part of the 
woodsmen in meeting new situations which arise in dragging out 
the logs. It is unfortunate that so much of the finest woods in 
the Dominion is being thus sacrificed to commercial enterprise. 
Naturally, one expects to find birds plentiful in such a region. 
Silver-eyes, white-heads, tomtits and fantails are abundant and 
tame. Mr. Hamilton captured one silver-eye in his hand. Our 
best finds of the day were a wood pigeon and the rare North 
Island robin. 
Toward the northwest side of Rotorua, and facing Lake Roto- 
rua, is the picturesque native village of Ohinemutu. Here, a great 
deal of the old Maori life survives. Most of the houses are painted 
red and have galvanized iron roofs. Many of the lintels, cornices 
and fronts of the houses are elaborately carved with the character- 
istic seroll-like figures so common in Maori art. 
Two fine examples of Maori handiwork are the historic meeting 
house, Tama-te-Kapua, and the near-by artistic and partly re- 
constructed Anglican church with its surrounding burial ground. 
At the meeting house a native ‘‘Tangi’’ was going on. After a 
death has occurred in a family it is the custom among the Maoris 
for the friends and relatives of the deceased to congregate for a 
period of mutual condolence and sorrow, expressed by loud wail- 
ing and moaning; sometimes these tangis last for several hours, 
