372 TUTIRA 



parties, caught perhaps on the move by the impulse to build, seemed 

 for several seasons, after the vanguard had reached the run, to breed, 

 if not semi - gregariously, then at any rate thickly, in comparatively 

 limited areas, thickets of tall manuka and the like. These areas in 

 later years contained fewer pairs, sometimes, indeed, no birds at all, 

 though covert, breeding accommodation, and food -supply were each 

 and all, as before, superabundant. 



Again, I think, there can be no doubt that old and young alike 

 were drawn into the current of migration. There is no alternative 

 by which the disappearance of broods reared on the line of march 

 can be accounted for. It is, at any rate, as certain in regard to the 

 chaffinch as in regard to the blackbird and thrush, that the advance 

 was not solid, that there were not multitudes of birds north of a 

 given line, whilst south of it not a specimen was to be found. 



Consideration of the weasel's passage along the east coast shows 

 more clearly than any other migrant movement that there exists in 

 each unit of the mass, not only in its mature members, but also in 

 those born during the journey, the instinct of adventure. The proof 

 is complete ; it lies in the fact that the pest passed through the 

 district and disappeared. In this case we do not need to deduce and 

 infer how the young have gone forward. We know they did go 

 forward, for none of any age, young or old, remained. The three 

 years' irruption of weasels through Tutira, and the district lying be- 

 tween Napier and Gisborne, resembled the progress of a comet across 

 the heavens, the tail following the head, and at last leaving the sky 

 once more clear. The invasion rolled itself up like a scroll ; it came 

 and went like a thunderstorm ; ominous rumblings and mutterings, 

 rumours of bitten babies, slaughtered fowls and lambs, lightning flashes 

 from the Yellow Press, curses on the squatter class, heralded its ap- 

 proach. Then it rained weasels ; they poured along the roads. There 

 was a dissipation of the clouds ; once again the sun shone bright 

 through a blue sky the weasel was a thing of the past, and remained 

 so for very many years. 



In the migratory movements of the starling and minah there is 

 considerable proof of a general nature as to inclusion of young birds 

 in the advance. In the march of each of them, however, there has 

 been a parasitic clinging to man which places them in a different 

 category from the weasel, rabbit, blackbird, thrush, chaffinch, and 



