I never see the name Norfolk Island (past which we sailed) without recalling 

 the image of a transplanted but perfect example of its so-called Pine - the 

 beautiful Araucaria excelsa - 60 feet high, delicate green, and 

 straight as a die, that one may at any time see near the Hotel del Coronado. 

 This symmetrical beauty performs the useful function, each holiday season of a 

 live, outdoor Christmas tree. Bedight with colored electric lights from its 

 spreading base to its conical top, it is easily the observed of all observers, 

 and both day and night is a most attractive object. As if further to fit the 

 purpose for which it is borrowed, the extreme apex of the tree terminates in 

 a sort of Maltese cross, and forms a convenient and appropriate anchorage for 

 the traditional Star of Bethlehem 1 . It was Captain Cook who discovered and 

 christened the island - after the ducal family of the same name. He says of 

 the tree:- J 



"The chief produce is a sort of spruce pine, which grows in abundance a/nd 

 to a great size, many of the trees being as thick, breast high, as two men 

 could fathom, and exceeding straight and tall. It resembles the Quebec pine" - 

 and we must not forget that for several years the Captain cultivated the 

 acquaintance of Lower Canadian timber . 



There is, or rather was a beautiful Norfolk Island parrot of which not 

 even a birdskin remains - only a single drawing to perpetuate its memory. And 

 thus are passing many another species and race of Polynesian fauna. 



Th„ w ? ^niscent of home to find the Marbled Godwit in North New Zealand. 

 + £! I a l thiS e raceful b ^d was on the beach near San Diego, 



T.LVt .February, 1923. I am also reminded that there is at least one com- 

 somroir^ n .L 1Sitin !u AUS ^ alaSia durin S the " off " seas °n f °r birds; one sees 

 tWant n i i in l hB Shape ° f mi S rants wh0 &r reasons of their own fly across 

 aiSTS? « L* f ,° Cean t0 Spend the 1Tinter in that delectable land. It 

 snow ^n PP0Se i tha l a11 Mrds that insist on breeding in countries with a 

 nearest wZ T 1 & d ° Mn ° r tW ° Stations of "experience, seek the 



as^erv ffioderate /inter climate furnishing sufficient food. However, 

 most IIL + din f orn ithologist knows, some do not, and perhaps not even the 

 anv I a nd experienced student of bird behavior knows always why. In 

 distrlw'n ? atte fP t f solution of this problem has added much literature to 

 mixtion ^ + r n + °u° gy ' and 4t iS StU1 comi «S ^n. Speaking again of Godwit 

 of sfi^ + : ^ r ff n extremit y ° f North Island, New Zealand, is the Bay 



theW^L; + ° a + 1 i ed ff 0m the Kaori belief that the s ^is of the dead take , 

 lonelv ^° f e + °\ her W ° rid fr ° m this loca iity. It is an uninhabited 



appropriate fo^th ste ^'^ V^e, as it were, and would appear to be 

 ThSe^i J^er 86 aS5igned t<? W by & har * ari ° but imaginative race, 



also at thP Ztl' an + 0ther /f son » P^bably the reason, for this tradition- 

 ller t^t r n0r * nern tx ?° £ lon S an d narrow New" Zealand is the rocky,plateau 

 musTbo a ! I" ? f 16 ln thousand s for their anual return to Siberia. It 

 Manual P tTt and a f -i-Pir^S sight. Even the matter-of-fact Buller 



and much clamour f ° "° rdS: " " RiSing fr ° n th ° bcaCh in a lon S linc 



aS. TJS h °J f ° rm " t0 Q broad Circle, and mounting high in the 

 ana tfllTllVllnl ^ soaeti * QS ^ rise in a^confused manner; 



form as it till ^ G considera ble height, return to the beach to re- 



orm, as it ,.ere, their ranks, and then make a fresh start on their distant 



-15- 



