91 
(fan tails), fly-catchers (nearly allied to tomtits,) have disappeared 
almost entirely, and also the tui or parson birds are very much 
diminished. I believe it to be owing to climatic changes. The 
year of the war appeared the silver eye or blight bird, and 
they have come every winter (till this, in which few have arrived) 
in immense flocks, feeding on the apple trees. They are pretty 
birds, very active, like the long-tailed tomtit of England, but 
are allied to the canary, and breed by thousands in the Chatham 
Islands. This last .summer for the first time a species of swallow 
was seen here, and went away. They evidently come from 
the Middle Island, like the silver eye, for they were seen by a 
passenger on the route on a steamer. It is very true that bees 
have increased enormously in the bush ; but I cannot believe they 
have stung the birds in the bill, as reported, or starved them by 
eating up all the honey in the millions of honey-producing trees 
in the forest. The great fire, I wrote about three years ago, nearly 
destroyed them ; four days dense smoke from burning evergreen 
trees, severely tried human lungs, so the bees must have suffered 
also, to say nothing of their homes being reduced to ashes for 
miles of country. Before the war, in 18G0, there were thousands 
of swarms in the bush, and nearly everybody in the country kept 
ten to fifty hives, and used the honey instead of sugar for all 
purposes, yet the birds did not diminish nor did I ever hear of 
any one finding a bird suffering from a bee-sting, or a rata tree 
without honey in its flowers ! I suspect that terrestrial commo- 
tions have, for a time, at least, altered our climate. Since our 
last great earthquake our winds have altered in intensity, frequency, 
and direction. Report states that a great disruption of Antarctic 
ice has taken place, which to me explains the frequency of 
penguins, mostly young, being among the rocks here, and the 
capture of two sorts of seals — the common seal and sea lion, 
both young — close to the to^vn, though they have never been seen 
since this was a settlement. The natives say they were common 
before the Europeans came, and they still call certain rocks 
on the beach by the names of the sort of seal that once frequented 
them. Our earthquake troubles are not over, and Tongariro has 
emitted enormous quantities of ashes, cinders, and black smoke. 
It is said all the fish have been poisoned in one of the lakes at the 
foot of the mountain. 
