38 Historical Notes on the 



progress of my narrative, I met this large raptorial bird several times 

 more, without however being fortunate enough to secure a specimen, 

 and I must therefore leave it to future explorers of these Alpine 

 regions, and to more fortunate circumstances, to obtain this rara avis.. 

 During the night we heard, besides the well-known call of the More- 

 pork {Athene Novae Zelandics), tbat of another owl, which I had never 

 heard before ; also that of another bird, which was not nnlike the notes 

 of the Kiwi. Every morning, at the break of day, when the weather 

 was fine, we were awakened by the songs of numerous birds in the 

 copses close to us ascending the mountain sides, amongst which the 

 New Zealand Thrush (Keropia crassirostris~), the Bell-bird {Antlwrnis 

 melanura) , and several of the smaller songsters which generally inhabit 

 the lower regions, could well be distinguished. 



Even on the great glacier itself, animal life was not wanting. There 

 is in the first instance a grey stone coloured grasshopper, with a straight 

 forehead, very abundant in the morainic accumnlations ; it also is very 

 common on all the shingle slips throughout the Alps. Another inhabitant 

 of the glacier is a very large black wolf-spider which, however, retreated 

 so quickly at our approach, between the blocks of rocks, that we 

 were unable to secure a single specimen, although we tried constantly 

 to catch it. Of course, the ubiquitous Blue-bottle fly is also not 

 missing. "When taking our lunch on the centre of the glacier, sitting 

 on an erratic block, and surrounded by ice, the Blue-bottle immediately 

 appeared ; and the same was the case when resting under the shelter of 

 some rocks on Mount Cook range, nearly 8,000 feet above the sea. I also 

 collected a number of insects and spiders, but with very few exceptions 

 they were all identical with those obtained in the mountain regions nearer 

 to Christchurch. Mosquitoes, there were none, but the plague of 

 Sand-flies, which visited us in myriads, more than made np for their 

 absence ; and principally before or during rainy weather they were 

 almost intolerable. There is not a drawing made or a page in my 

 journal written during that time which does not bear ample marks of 

 the blood these minute tormentors extracted from me, and against 

 which protection was impossible. Fortunately after the night had 

 fairly set in they ceased to torture us — but they were splendid alarums 

 in the early morning. 



On the 15th of April I broke camp, and descending the right bank 

 of the river Tasman, we soon found, when we were about eight miles 

 from its junction with Lake Pukaki, that the bad reputation which that 

 portion of its course enjoys from the shepherds in the neighbourhood 



