THE INVASION FROM THE SOUTH 331 



desiring association with some living thing, however distant in degree. 

 Its forlorn air and close proximity to the wire suggested the idea of a 

 wish to plunge itself amongst other fowl, even though only game-fowl, 

 to bathe itself in their society, to wash away the feeling of appalling 

 loneliness. The homestead, it must be remembered, in those days was 

 a bare square of wood in a bare paddock. There was no shelter, there 

 were no trees, there were no alien birds. 



For the third time minahs appeared in '86, two pair -attempting 

 that year to build about the house itself ; in their thorough investigation 

 of the possibilities of the chimney, more than once the birds fluttered 

 into the rooms beneath ; whole mornings were spent on the shingle 

 roof, inspecting the eaves and carrying little sticks into impossible 

 places. Once or twice the incomplete nests were flooded out from 

 the gutters ; at last, after many weeks, the birds left without having 

 succeeded in their efforts to found a family. 



During the two following years there was no further attempt to 

 colonise Tutira. In '89 I was at home ; upon my return to New 

 Zealand I found that the construction of the Napier-Tutira-Wairoa road 

 had begun. On the route of the surveyed line navvies were camped 

 under canvas in several different parties, each of which was attended 

 by its special flock of minahs. The birds lived on the leavings of the 

 meals thrown out ; they were there for what they could get ; for the 

 very same reasons as induced the Jews to follow the Normans into 

 England, the minahs followed the navvies into Tutira. A pair once 

 more reached the Tutira homestead. Again, however, they were balked 

 for want of building sites ; again the only suitable-looking spot 

 the chimney was explored, the birds as before, during the progress 

 of research, fluttering into the rooms beneath. By this date, however, 

 our plantation of Pinus insignis had reached a height of eighteen or 

 twenty feet ; lashed together, several of them were stout enough to 

 support a box. A box accordingly was fastened into the pine clump, 

 not the one selected by me, but another quite unsuitable in shape, 

 and which exposed the sitting bird to strong light. So keen, however, 

 were the minahs to build, if not actually on the house then close 

 to it, that even this poor substitute was eagerly utilised. It was 

 evident that if they could not breed in immediate proximity to man 

 they would breed nowhere else. 



