

, 



140 



I have never seen any reason to alter or modify the views I put forward on this point 



in the ' Birds of New Zealand ' ; but at the same time it is only fair to give due weight to 



any reasonable objections to one's theory. The principal difficulties are formulated by myself 



'in a paper read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, and, in the interests of truth, I 



will reproduce them. 



At 7 p.m. on October 26th we left Tokanu for Tapuaehariiru in a four-oared boat, manned by 

 a good crew of Armed Constabulary. It was a beautiful, calm day, and the surface of the lake was a perfect 

 mirror. Five miles from land we could still hear the hollow boom of the Bittern, and the barking of the curs 

 in the Maori village. There was not a breath of air to cause a ripple on the bosom of the lake, and the rock- 

 bound margin of Motutaiko danced in the mirage of the morning sun. Our men were settling down to a long 

 pull of twenty-five miles, and we had just arranged to make straight for Motutaiko and rest there for an alfresco 

 lunch, when the seaman Todd, who was in charge of the crew, pointed to an advancing ripple from the south- 

 ward ; and, without a moment's warning, we were overtaken by a squall which increased in fury with amazing 

 rapidity. Within the brief space of five minutes, instead of dreamily rowing on the placid waters, we were 

 pitching and tossing in an angry sea — the rudder was powerless, and the oarsmen had the utmost difficulty in 

 keeping the boat's head on. We shipped several heavy seas, and struggled on for hours, sometimes drifting, 

 at others just holding our own, as the storm varied in force, the men all pulling with desperate strength, knowing 

 that to relax for a moment meant swamping and destruction to us all; for the best swimmer could not long 

 have survived a capsize in such a sea, and with the atmosphere and water so intensely cold. After some four 

 hours of unflagging labour, a lull in the storm enabled us to get under the lee of Motutaiko ; but half an hour 

 after we had landed, in a little rocky cove on the western side of the island, the storm redoubled in force, and 

 for some hours such a gale blew as had not been witnessed in the lake for years. The ' little white horses ' of 

 the sea chased each other in quick succession, and the spray rose in clouds as the wind swept over the 

 tempestuous waters. Of course the first consideration on reaching land was a sense of gratitude at having 

 escaped from a very perilous position ; but I was delighted on landing to hear on all sides the silvery notes of 

 the Korimako. As is well known, this little songster, which formerly was so abundant everywhere, has for 

 a long time past been practically extinct in the North Island. At the time of this visit to Motutaiko it had 

 not been heard of for several years on the mainland, although it was known to exist on certain islands off the 

 coast, such as the Little Barrier in the Hauraki Gulf, and the island of Kapiti in Cook Strait ; and the 

 generally accepted theory had been that the chief factor in its extermination was the introduced Bat. That 

 certainly was my own belief. But a fact now came to my knowledge which seemed to tell very much against 

 that theory. It was this : the island on which I so unexpectedly met with the Bell-bird is famous for its 

 Bats. It is covered with pohutukawa trees and koromiko scrub, and the whole island swarms with Bats. The 

 ground is, in places, almost honeycombed with their burrows, for in one spot I counted no less than five holes 

 within a radius of eighteen inches. So numerous were they that Topia Turoa had found it necessary to turn 

 some cats adrift on the island to reduce their numbers before he could put in a crop of potatoes on one of the 

 slopes; and wind-bound boats lying in the little sandy cove at night have, it is said, been invaded by multitudes 

 of Bats and had all their provisions carried off. 



Then, again, as to the Bat theory, it is a significant fact that, although the Korimako has disappeared from 

 the North Island, it has continued to exist in the South Island, although in somewhat diminished numbers; 

 and, so far as I am aware, the introduced Bat is as plentiful there as in the North. There may be destructive 

 causes in operation of which we have no present knowledge. 



Beferring to the Korimako or Bell-bird, Lord Onslow, in his now famous memorandum to the 

 Premier, says : "I would also, at the same time, suggest that Ministers should take into con- 

 sideration the propriety of including some other native birds in the list of protected species. As 

 I have already mentioned, the Bell-bird, formerly so plentiful, has entirely disappeared from 

 the North Island. But it is still very plentiful all over the South Island, and is a common 

 denizen of the gardens and shrubberies in all the principal towns. This is the bird that so 

 enchanted Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks by its song when their ship lay at anchor in 

 Queen Charlotte Sound more than a hundred years ago, and, having become historical, it would 



