Eeischek. — On Neiv Zealand Ornithology. 187 



Akt. XX. — Notes on Neiv Zealand Ornithology. By A. Eeischek. 

 Communicated by Dr. Hector. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 25th November, 1884.] 

 The 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 acquired 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. Eeischek's service, 

 but having to leave by the "Stella" on a visit to Dunedin, Mr. 

 Eeischek 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. Eeischek'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. 



