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objects, and thousands of single ones scattered through the bush, render the landscape charactei’istic 
and picturesque. After a brief halt, our natives resumed their swags and we continued the ascent, 
arriving at Pukehoua, at the edge of the mountain-forest, in time to fix our little camp and cook the 
evening meal before the shades of night had closed in upon us. 
At daybreak one of the native attendants called me up to hear the rich flute-notes of the Kokako 
{Olaucopis wilsoni) in the low timber at the edge of the forest. I went after him with my gun, but 
owing to the thickness of the underwood I failed to find the bird. Leaving our camp at 6 a.m. we 
entered the dense bush and resumed our ascent of the range. Before we had gone far the dogs (each 
of whom carried a sheep-bell around his neck) took up the Kiwi scent and disappeared down a ravine, 
one of the natives dashing after them. He presently reappeared with a fine female Kiwi, which was 
immediately secured in a Maori ket. 1 returned with him to the spot and saw at once how utterly 
hopeless it would be to attempt Kiwi-catching without dogs. Near the bottom of a deep gully, 
completely choked up with the ground-kiekie {Freydnetia hanJcsii), so thick and luxuriant indeed 
that it was a matter of difficulty to push through it at all, down among the gnarled roots of a tawhero, 
and quite hidden by a growth of Asplenium bulhiferum and other ferns, was the entrance to the 
Kiwi’s retreat — a rounded and perfectly artificial entrance, just large enough to admit the hand. I 
inserted my arm to its full length and could just reach the extremity of the chamber, which spread 
laterally and widened at a little distance from the mouth. On getting back to the track on the ridge, 
the natives showed me another “ rua-kiwi,” from which they had, not long before, taken an adult 
Kiwi and an egg. This hole was in brown vegetable mould alongside a fallen tree, and the entrance 
was so perfectly round that I at once felt persuaded that the Kiwis, if they do not actually dig or 
burrow their holes with their well-armed feet, at any rate scrape and adapt them. Natural holes and 
cavities are so numerous, owing to the gnarled character of the roots, that the birds would have no 
difficulty in finding a cavity suitable for nesting-purposes, with the smallest possible labour in preparing 
it. But more about this anon. After a couple hours’ tramp through the bush we came to the 
place previously decided on for our camp and daily rendezvous. 
Our natives were not long in putt ing up a double shelter, in the form of an inverted V, with the 
apex open. A log fire occupied the space between, the opening in the roof permitting the smoke to 
escape. My friend and myself occupied one side and the natives the other. These bush huts, which 
are quite impervious to the rain, are very simply and rapidly constructed. First, a slanting framework 
of slender sticks cut from the adjoining woods is erected, and this is thatched on top and sides with 
the pliant leaves of the nikau palm [Areca saynda), the long fronds being skilfully interlaced together, 
and covered on the outside with a thick layer of tree-fern branches placed with the lower surface 
reversed, so as to prevent annoyance from the dusty seed-spores. 
Our camping-place was conveniently chosen, with ready access to firewood and water, besides 
being a very picturesque spot ; and as it may give some faint idea of the richness and surpassing 
loveliness of the New-Zealand “ Bush,” I shall endeavour to describe it. Behind and overshadowing 
us was a grove of fine tawa trees, their tops meeting so as to admit only a glimmering of the sun- 
light, and immediately beyond them, in striking contrast with the clear, upright boles of the former, 
a group of tawhero, their trunks covered from the ground upwards with a dense growth of climbing 
kiekie, spreading out its tufted arms in all directions. Right in front of us was a thick and almost 
impenetrable tangle of undergrowth, laced together with the kareao-vine, which hangs its wiry 
cables from the tree-tops above and twists and coils about among the underwood in every conceivable 
form. Then a little to the right and open to the light of heaven through a gap in the forest 
could be seen a lovely group of Cyathea medullaris, the stems of the largest being some forty feet in 
height, and in their very midst, touched by their waving fronds and leaning against a sturdy hinau, 
stood a withered, crownless trunk, covered with a thick profusion of epiphytic plants in every shade 
