1 1 8 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



the flower trusses are beginning to show on the Clematis 

 and native bramble. A pair of grey warblers, which built 

 their nest on the top branches of a tall Deutzia near the 

 house, are looking about their domicile to see what altera- 

 tions are needed before they start hoiisekeeping again. 

 The days are each only lengthened by a minute or so, 

 yet the increase of light and sunshine soon begins to tell 

 on the vegetation, and makes the buds swell. 



One of the brightest spots in our Town Belt at this time 

 of the year is the brow of Maori Hill, where the ground 

 drops almost perpendicularly into the Leith Valley. It is 

 a charming spot in which to pause in our ramble on this 

 bright morning, for a most beautiful panorama opens out 

 to east, north, and west. But what a change has come 

 over the scene since first I saw it nearly thirty years ago ! 

 In those days the whole of Pine Hill was clad in dense 

 forest, which came right down to the outskirts of the town 

 in Duke Street. The Queen's Drive was not made then, 

 and the vegetation of the Belt was more umbrageous than 

 it is to-day, while gorse and broom and elderberry had 

 not begun to invade and occupy all the undergrowth and 

 open ground. Blackbirds and thrushes were unknown, 

 but the call of the weka was commonly heard during the 

 day, and that of the morepork at night. Stockmen would 

 occasionally lose a wild bullock for a week at a time in the 

 dense scrub at the north end of the town, so that it was 

 not always safe to ramble in the neighbourhood. 



From a botanist's point of view the change in the vegeta- 

 tion due to the clearing of the bush and the invasion of 

 introduced plants has been very great, and it may be of 

 interest to record some of the disappearances, not only 

 about the north end, however, but all round Dunedin. 



One of the first effects which follows from the clearing of 

 the bush is the decrease in humidity of the soil and air, 

 and as a consequence many of the most delicate ferns and 

 mosses become dried up. Formerly, of course, these 

 fragile plants grew down to the water's edge over a great 

 part of the site of Dunedin ; even in the seventies they 

 could be got among the undergrowth and large trees at the 



