AND OTHER BIRDS 153 



her expectancy and with an abiding air of 

 hopeful eagerness. She would then for a 

 moment pause with the contemplative air the 

 breed can so well assume, and then slowly 

 flicking her tail descend into the depths. Thence, 

 after a moment or two, she would re-appear and 

 again carefully turn over the debris of the 

 Kiwi's nest, and apparently be, really and truly 

 this time, about to leave the spot. She would 

 saunter off at first with some determination, 

 then the steps would become less resolute, then 

 she would pause, and you became aware she was 

 a lost woman. She would re-assume that 

 thoughtful air, then quite briskly and, as if the 

 happy thought of looking into that hole had 

 suddenly struck her for positively the first time, 

 would re-enter it. 



On another occasion, in another part of 

 Stewart Island, I was watching a pair of Kaka 

 whose young lay in the bole of a kamahi. Into 

 this trunk there were three entrances by which 

 the old bird could pass, and one of them hap- 

 pened to be almost level with the forest floor. 

 As I have related, the smallest alterations in the 

 bush are interesting to the Weka ; and the trees 

 fallen and the undergrowth cleared away for the 

 sake of more light had, of course, attracted 

 several of them to the spot. By these birds it 

 was discovered that nestlings, alive, apparently 

 unprotected, and nearly quite naked, were to 

 be viewed at the lowermost hole. In fact, until 

 the female Kaka herself returned to the 

 vicinity, not all the sticks thrown, not even one 

 of the poets hurled in extremity, could scare 

 the marauders off, and twice, when a Weka 

 entered the hollow of the tree, I was in great 



