46 
NATURE NOTES. 
to give up eating the grass, and grub up the turf in search 
of worms and succulent roots. Among the tall fern their 
lairs are very noticeable from the brown hues of the uprooted 
bracken. Usually when detected pigs escape as quickly as 
possible, but sometimes coming suddenly on a couple of boars 
with no cover near, I have known them show fight to a horse- 
man. When, as sometimes happens, twenty or twenty-five 
wild pigs are travelling in a mob, they will round up and face 
the dogs, the leader charging gallantly and the rest following 
him with a terrible and ferocious grunting. In spring the 
old roving boars are a great trouble, following the ewes and 
devouring the new-born lambs. Bacon and hams cured from 
wild pigs is excellent, indeed, after being accustomed to it 
none other seems palatable. It is not so fat as sty-fed pork, 
and very white and tender. 
During March we have had a few dry windy days and 
took full advantage of them for burning grass and scrub. It 
is curious how the pericarps of the manuka open after fire, 
and no doubt this habit helps the shrub, for the seed imme- 
diately falls on to the black ashes beneath. The manuka 
in this is like some of the Australian forest trees, whose seeds 
only germinate freely after a forest fire. After burning the 
fern on the run, directly the primrose smoke of the flaming 
ridges has cleared away, the lazy harriers may be seen sailing 
along looking out for burnt mice and lizards. For some 
mysterious reason the old natives were horribly afraid of these 
latter animals. The avenging deity was thought of by them 
as a lizard. Some writers have imagined that their terror 
of this harmless creature was the remnant of some story 
handed down from an earlier race and founded on the re- 
collection of some real monster. 
The green lizard is a beautiful little fellow, the tints pure 
and soft ; he is very lithe, too, and active in his movements. 
When detected on the bole of a tree, like ■ a squirrel he will 
climb or lie motionless, always on the side away from his 
fancied foe. Lizards are very courageous, showing fight, and 
snapping their mouths like the shutting of a pair of scissors, 
or the chapping of two stones together. They, like their 
brown cousins, love to bask in the sun. One of the latter I 
have sometimes frightened away from the sunny mouth of 
his retreat half a dozen times before he ceased to reappear. 
In the garden the flowers are fast failing, the heavy dews 
lie from morning to night in the shaded valleys, and an 
autumnal tint of duller green reigns over bush and grass and 
fern. 
Tutira Lake, Napier, H. Guthrie-Smith. 
New Zealand. 
