330 TUTIRA 



spear-head, thrust itself more deeply into the run. Then at once the 

 goldfinch became extraordinarily plentiful, enormous flocks tenanting 

 every part of the eastern run. Lastly, normal conditions prevailed ; 

 as the soil became thistle -sick, the superabundant food -supply of the 

 species began to fail. In fact, just as the bee diminished on Tutira 

 with the disappearance of white clover, so the numbers of the goldfinch 

 declined with the vanishing thistle. 



A small number of minahs (Acridotheris tristis) had been liberated 

 in 77 by the Hawke's Bay Acclimatisation Society. In '82 these birds 

 were still regarded as novelties; the habits of mated pairs were still 

 carefully noted ; I well remember the interest attached to a pair 

 breeding in '84 beneath the eaves of the late Mr W. Birch's house 

 near Hastings. As the goldfinch on Tutira will always be associated 

 in my mind with early efforts at wool -classing, so is the minah 

 associated with another great event in station life the docking and 

 ear-marking of lambs. 



Cuningham and I had by '84 built a cottage, and provided ourselves 

 with a married couple to look after it and us " to make themselves gen- 

 erally useful," as the phrase goes. A garden had been dug and fruit- 

 trees planted ; our semi-wild game-fowls had been brought over from 

 the site of the original homestead. Instead of stravaiging hundreds 

 of yards away, and flying with frantic eagerness from the hillsides 

 when the milk-dish was scraped of its dough at the whare door, they 

 lived well-regulated prosaic lives within a run of wire-netting visible 

 from the dining-room. One day in November docking was later in 

 those times we were breakfasting about nine after a long morning's 

 work, when Cuningham, who sat opposite the window, drew my 

 attention to a solitary bird crouched up against the netting of the 

 hen-yard, as if endeavouring to chum up with the fowls. It was a 

 minah, a solitary wanderer, attempting, as lost animals do, to associate 

 with any other living creatures, however remotely connected. Next 

 morning it was gone. 



A year later, when we were again docking our lambs, a or, as 

 I have always believed, the minah reappeared. As before, when 

 noticed, it was crouched on the ground close to the wire-netting of the 

 hen -run, exactly on the spot where Cuningham had seen it twelve 

 months previously. Its whole appearance was that of a creature 



