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Ihis was some twenty years ago — when riding through this lovely wooded valley — at a time when the 
load passed through the primitive forest, all untouched by the hand of man, disclosing to the eye 
new beauties at every turn as it followed the course of a tortuous mountain-stream. From the time 
of my first visit up to the present (and I have passed through the valley hundreds of times) I have 
never tired of this beautiful sylvan scenery ; but at the period I speak of the bush wa,s an almost 
impervious tangle, the lower tree-tops bound together with kareao and other creeping plants, and 
the trees themselves laden with a rich epiphytic growth. Even now it is a delightfully refreshing 
resort. The tawa rears its feathery branches of soft pale green, and beside it rises, like a sentinel, 
the cone-shaped top of the darker Knightia excelsa ; the bright green of the rimu with its graceful, 
diooping boughs, is everywhere present ; and, as the eye scans the scene more closely, almost every 
tree common to the New-Zealand bush may be readily distinguished, all growing in rank profusion, 
plentifully sprinkled with the star-like crowns of giant tree-ferns, varied here and there with the 
bending palm-like top of the nikau (Areca saguda), its huge stem springing up from the shady depths 
of the uneven forest — the whole presenting a beautiful picture, in ever varying tints, and almost sub- 
tropical in the luxuriance of its growth. In this valley there are yet some matchless groups of 
Cyathea medullaris and other tree-ferns; but the hand of civilization is upon the wilderness, the 
virgin forest is receding more and more, the axe of the woodman is incessant, and the bushman’s fire 
is doing every season its further work of devastation. A few years hence, and the sylvan beauty of 
Horokiwi with all its sweet memories will have passed away for ever! 
One peculiarity about this species is its devotion to some particular locality, beyond which it 
never wanders very far. Mr. C. Field, a Government surveyor, who has spent the best part of his 
life in the woods, writes to me : — “ I have seen the bird in the same spot year after year, and generally 
in pairs, except when the hen is nesting. To my certain knowledge a pair of them have kept to the 
same locality, on a valley flat by the side of a stream, for a period of seven or eight years.” My last 
fresh specimens (two males and one female preserved in spirit) were received in January 1884, from 
this gentleman, who obtained them far up the wooded valley of the Pourewa on the west coast, 
where he was conducting a trigonometrical survey. A year later a skin was sent in by Mr. Tone, 
another Government surveyor, who was employed on the east coast, and who informed me that the 
bird was still to be met with in the woods at Akitio. 
A pair has been known to frequent for several seasons a spot on the western side of the 
Rangataua lake, near the source of the Mangawhero river, at the foot of the Ruapehu mountain. A 
correspondent who visited the place in the summer of 1880 was informed by the resident natives 
that the birds had always nested there. He could hear their musical song from his camp across 
the lake, and on going over he found the old birds in a rnaire tree, but could see nothing of the 
young brood. They were very tame and fearless, and on his simulating their notes they readily came 
to the ground and hopped about, scratching the surface and turning over the leaves as if in search 
of insects. 
It shows how rare the bird has become when its habitat is thus localized. Indeed, it has 
already entirely disappeared from a tract of country where in former years it was specially abundant. 
In proof of this, I may mention the experience of Mr. Morgan Carkeek, who in 1884, at the instance 
of the Public Works Department, made a careful exploration of the Mokau-Wanganui district. 
Starting from the foot of Mount Egmont he followed down the Patea river, then up the north-east 
branches of this and the Wanganui rivers, crossed the watershed, and followed up the north-west 
branches of the latter into the Tuhua country ; and then returned, by a route lying between the 
White Cliffs and Mokau, to the sea-coast. All the country thus traversed is heavy bush-land and, 
for the most part, excessively rough and broken. During the whole journey, which occupied about 
two months, he never once saw or heard a Piopio ! 
