72 MUTTON BIRDS 



CHAPTER XI. 

 THE KAKA. 



[URING February of 1911 the Kaka 

 were in thousands on the lower slopes 

 of the great wooded spurs that run 

 from Table Hill into the Rakiahua 

 Valley. The forest was alive with 

 their movement and echoed with their 

 clamorous cries. A constant shower of 

 rotten wood and bark rained from above, 

 and Banjo ran from tree to tree looking 

 up at the unattainable birds and barking 

 with excitement. About one trunk he circled, 

 barking and sniffing, and then again returned 

 to it still not absolutely satisfied ; and I suppose 

 it was this second visit and the tone of his bark 

 that caused me instantly to mark the tree. It 

 was a kamahi of considerable girth, but its shell 

 only> alive and green; the interior was rotted 

 away until almost level with the ground, and 

 the space within about two feet in diameter 

 floored with wood powder, dry and sweet. On 

 this brown carpet rested two eggs, small for the 

 size of the parrot, dull white in colour, and 

 evidently much incubated. The interior of the 

 bole had been gouged and chiselled by the sitting 

 hen, until no scrap of it within neck stretch re- 

 mained unmarked. These eggs, found during 

 the first week of February, were not re-visited 



