Rxrscmgx.—On New Zealand Ornithology. 187 
Art. XX.—Notes on New Zealand Ornithology. By A. Reiscnex. 
Communicated by Dr. Hector. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 25th November, 1884. 
Tux author of this paper has had seven years’ experience as an ornithol- 
ogist in New Zealand, and during the last six months has undergone very 
severe personal hardships in his endeavour to solve some of the most difficult 
problems respecting the habits of our rarest birds that are found only in the 
most remote and inaccessible parts of the islands. In February last he 
arranged for an expedition to the ** Sounds," to study the habits of the kiwi 
and kakapo, and I had great pleasure and confidence in assisting him with 
the knowledge of that wonderful region which I have aequired from many 
exploring visits during the last twenty years. His plan was to take an 
assistant with him in the light-house steamer “ Stella " when she tendered 
the Puysegur light-house at the south entrance to Preservation Inlet, and 
there hire a small whaleboat with which to make his explorations. But at 
the Bluff his companion fell sick after all the arrangements had been made 
and six months’ stores for his party’s use had been purchased and placed 
aboard the ** Stella." Nevertheless he determined to proceed alone, and 
in due course was landed with his supplies in Dusky Sound, at the place 
where Mr. Docherty, the mining prospector, has built a hut. Mr. 
Docherty assisted him as far as lay in his power, and with great 
kindness placed his hut and his canoe at Mr. Reischek’s service, 
but having to leave by the “Stella” on a visit to Dunedin, Mr. 
Reischek was left to follow his researches single-handed. The canoe 
was a very crank craft dug'out of a small log, but he lashed on each 
side of it logs of the most buoyant wood he could find, and so gained 
sufficient stability to navigate the waters of the sound when the weather was 
fair, which it seldom is for more than a few hours at a time, so that he was 
storm-stayed often for days together on narrow ledges bounded by precipitous 
cliffs. But Mr. Reischek's greatest feats of endurance must have been in 
his exploration of the alpine regions that overhang the sounds. He spent 
weeks in cutting tracks to reach the lofty table-lands that form the summits 
of the mountains, carrying up provisions sufficient to enable him to 
spend many nights and days in observing and recording the habits of the 
strange birds that inhabit these localities. Having once myself spent eight 
months in what was after all only a most cursory examination of these 
wonderful sounds, I am able thoroughly to appreciate the work of an 
explorer who devoted six months of earnest work to one spot of them 
only. 
