NOVEMBER IN NEW ZEALAND. 
1 1 1 
difficult to extract. The flower stems are often fifteen or seven- 
teen feet in height and impart a reddish brown tinge to the 
swamps where they grow. During the blossoming time the native 
children are fond of drinking the sweet liquid from the flowers. 
In this operation they get their brown faces well yellowed 
by the plentiful pollen. Most of this plant has been destroyed 
on the run by fires and drainage of swamps, but in the old days 
its touch fibre served the natives for scores of purposes. One 
of the things that chiefly surprised the Maories in hearing about 
England was the absence of flax. “ What ! a country without 
flax ! How can people live in such a land ? ” they would 
exclaim. During the last few years the real flax with its pale 
blue sun-sensitive flower has rapidly spread. There is also a 
wild pure white variety on the run : it is not increasing. 
With a good climate and plentiful food supply the difficulty in 
bee-keeping is to prevent constant swarming. The hives used 
are chiefly Zangstroth. “ Such results as 300, 400, or even 500 
lbs. of extracted honey from one hive in a good season are not 
uncommon or even very rare. An average of 200 lbs. per hive 
may be often obtained under favourable circumstances and good 
management.” In some parts of New Zealand there are great 
complaints of the humble-bees recently imported to fertilize the 
red clover. Apiarists declare that their profits are much 
diminished. The bot-fly is another insect that has spread very 
rapidly over the whole of New Zealand. Last year I noticed it 
on our horses’ forelegs, and that summer there were remarks 
about it from all parts. In the colony we account the changed 
habits of the Kea parrot very remarkable. This bird, living in 
the mountains of the South Island, has of late years taken to 
destroying sheep. One from a flock is selected and hunted till 
it drops, the back being torn open in the loin. Much has been 
written on this parrot’s change of diet, a change from berries 
and honey-bearing flowers to raw flesh. Really, however, it is 
not much more curious than the persistent attacks on man and 
beast made by the mosquitos in forest districts where neither 
beast nor man has been before. Horses are often covered with 
blood by these tiny insects, who never can have had an oppor- 
tunity of tasting any animal diet previously. 
The grasses are flowering now all over the slopes and downs, 
giving the hill sides from a distance an appearance of hazel they 
have at no other time. It is produced, I think, by the flower 
stalks standing forth from the deep green undergrowth of leaf and 
clover leaf. The thistles are showing their earliest glimpses of 
purple, and on their prickly buds and leaves the apparently soft 
and tender-bodied caterpillars move quite unhurt. The hawk- 
eye, or “ cakeweed ” as it is called here, is flowering in millions 
on the poorer lands, closed in rain and at night, and yellow in 
the sun. Next month the golden blossoms will have failed and 
the wind-borne seed be sailing everywhere. 
H. Guthrie-Smith. 
