108 STALKS ABROAD 



quiet till about 3.30, when they kept it up inter- 

 mittently until the next morning. 



Against the green grass-covered hills the deer 

 appeared a very vivid red, much more so than in 

 Scotland, where they blend in with their surround- 

 ings to a greater extent. Many of the stags had 

 very red horns, due to the rubbing on the pitch- 

 pine trees, of which they are fond. After com- 

 paring my New Zealand heads with those of Scottish 

 red deer I find that the hair of the former is con- 

 siderably coarser in texture. 



On 5th April Burton arrived, having quite re- 

 covered. I had been working hard but had got 

 nothing. He was luckier, for the second day out 

 he killed a very pretty ten-pointer. Try as I 

 would I could not find a good stag in the open. 

 Every morning and every evening Buckley and I 

 would sally forth to some coign of vantage above 

 the bush. Every day we would return empty- 

 handed. If ever a roar was heard away up on the 

 hillside the glass invariably revealed some wretched 

 monstrosity who had developed his voice at the 

 expense of his head. Indeed most of these young 

 stags were regular Carusos, and would have been 

 no disgrace in point of voice capacity to a travel- 

 ling menagerie of lions, and we got heartily sick 

 of it. After a time conversation became spasmodic 

 and monosyllabic. Down in the bush some apparent 

 monster would begin roaring. Out would come 

 our glasses. Then this sort of thing would ensue : 



