AND OTHER BIRDS 67 



flights from bough to bough the Kaka can be 

 as silent as an Owl on the wing raining down 

 rotten wood and bark, clambering by beak alone, 

 uttering everywhere their guttural "Clock," 

 "clock," "clock," and listening with rapt in- 

 quisitive air, to the scratching and tapping 

 sounds made by us, as we paused beneath them 

 on the forest path. The woods were filled with 

 their calls and screechings ; and I may say, with- 

 out exaggeration, that Parrots were there by the 

 thousand. Pigeons, too, were very plentiful, and 

 Tuis, and Bell-birds in lesser though still very 

 great numbers. Fantails, though never so 

 numerous as in the forests of the North the 

 insect harvest is, I suppose, more sparse in the 

 chillier, southern bush were yet relatively 

 plentiful. Numbers of Warblers were on the 

 tree tops very high from the ground, and Tits 

 were to be noticed everywhere. Robins were 

 then to be found along the very skirt of the 

 forest where the tall pole manuka forms a 

 neutral zone between the tangle fern and rushes 

 of the valley lands, and the kamahi, pine and 

 iron wood of the forest. Again in the higher 

 forest fringe where the taller trees begin to 

 dwarf, where new and mountain species begin to 

 assert themselves, and where once more the tree 

 manuka appears, the breed is to be found in 

 autumn. 



The Parrakeets seen were in the forest, and 

 nowhere else. On the higher spurs of the hills 

 and in the manuka above the bush line, parties 

 of the inquisitive, chattering Bush Creeper were 

 frequent. To the best of my recollection the 

 Rifleman was fairly common ; and again, to the 

 best of my recollection, that diminutive bird was 



