CHAP. III.] ROADS. 89 



whole was in the highest degree mountainous, and 

 some time must pass before all the valleys, gorges, 

 and ravines can be explored, or rendered accessible. 

 Of the practicability of joining the valley of the 

 Hutt by means of a road with Hawke's Bay and 

 the valley of the Manawatu, I have no doubt ; but 

 it can only be done when the colony is in a much 

 more advanced state, and when labour is more 

 abundant and cheaper. 



Our stock of provisions was so much exhausted, 

 that we could not safely pursue our route in the 

 hope of finding a way out of this wilderness ; I 

 therefore determined to return by the road by which 

 we had come. This we accomplished with some 

 variations, and arrived at Port Nicholson on the 

 14th of August, after an absence of sixteen days. 



From the hills surrounding Port Nicholson I 

 added to my collection a very curious bird, which 

 before was only imperfectly known. This is the 

 bird whose white-tipped tail-feathers are so highly 

 prized by the natives, and are used as ornaments 

 for the head in all parts of the island. But the 

 bird, according to the accounts of the natives, with 

 which my own observation agrees, has a very nar- 

 row geographical locality, as it is only found in 

 the deepest recesses of the primeval forest covering 

 the hills around Port Nicholson, and between the 

 latter place and Hawke's Bay. It is called by the 

 natives Uia, and was received into the ornithological 

 system under the name of Neomorpha Gouldii. It 



