342 TUTIRA 



good friends ; the " forest " and " scrub " have been transformed into 

 sheep and dairy farms. 



Auckland, where the sparrow was liberated in '67, is built on a 

 narrow strip of sandy land ; east and west of it lies the ocean. North- 

 wards protrudes a meagre egress leading in the 'sixties towards land 

 poor in quality and covered with scrub. In the opposite direction ran 

 the only road of the period, the Great South Road, as it was called. 

 By this route vid Mercer, along the Waikato river to Cambridge, by 

 the armed constabulary posts to Hawke's Bay, through uninhabited 

 belts of forest, tussock-grass, and bracken, sparrows holding to the road 

 moved south. Finally, debouching from the ranges of the interior and 

 striking the open lands of western Hawke's Bay, they followed coast- 

 wards one of the bullock-tracks of that period, unmetalled, uncrowned, 

 in winter a quagmire, in spring nor'-westers rutted deep and dry, in 

 summer thick in powdered dust, but always distinct, always dissimilar 

 to other surfaces, and always full of promise to the sparrow tribe. 



In the orchard of Waipuna, the original homestead of the Rissington 

 run, sparrows were first seen in Hawke's Bay. The late Mr J. N. 

 Williams has often told me of the circumstances of his find. He was 

 taking delivery of cattle in early spring. Snow had fallen in calm 

 weather; lying on the ground and resting on the trees, its whiteness 

 brought into additional prominence a party of sparrows perched on a 

 plum-tree in the station garden and feeding in its vicinity. Two years 

 later, "about 1880," sparrows had reached Frimley, Mr Williams' beauti- 

 ful residence near Hastings. He has described to me how wild and 

 shy the birds seemed to have become after their journey through the 

 wilderness, and how difficult it was to obtain a proper view of them. 

 They had, in fact, in some degree become a tree-top species and kept 

 resolutely to the upper branches of the tall eucalypts. After consider- 

 able delay specimens were, however, shot for proof, for until they were 

 actually handled and viewed, Mr Williams' friends, like Thomas, would 

 not believe "it seemed impossible to them that the sparrow could 

 have reached Hawke's Bay in so brief a period over such a stretch 

 of wild country." 



The history of the sparrow, as observed on Tutira, will serve to 

 show how its multiplication, rapid enough in all conscience, was made, 

 by certain habits acquired during its pilgrimage through the desert, to 

 appear a marvel, a portent ; it will make intelligible how in the late 



