224 WELLINGTON chap. 
looking parrot that picks the livers out of the sheep) 
to the great handsome green Kakapo, or owl parrot ; 
the beautiful large pigeon and funny little black Tickes, 
with dull-red saddle-shaped markings on their backs ; 
long-tailed cuckoos ; the Pukeko, or swamp hen, with 
its long legs, blue breast, and bright-red beak. There 
are kingfishers, parson-birds, wattled crows, bell-birds, 
many kinds of ducks and sea-birds. 
In the afternoon I drove out to The Hutt, where at 
M'Nab's Gardens (the principal public ones of the kind) 
I saw a splendid collection of asters. The seed had 
come from Amsterdam. We had tea under the shade 
of the trees, and drove back as the sun was going down, 
and the landlocked harbour and mountains were all 
bathed in tender purples and gold. No wonder that 
Wellington is proud of her beautiful harbour. Soames 
Island, the quarantine station, lies near the entrance ; 
Point Halswell beyond, with its battery of heavy guns, 
and above it still, at Kaiwarra, another heavy battery. 
The city, which lies under the shadowy surrounding 
hills, is well guarded, and it would be no easy task to 
approach it in time of war. When the seat of Govern- 
ment was moved here from Auckland in 1865, ^^ 
" fishing village," as it was then called, was made the 
fourth most important city in the colonies. The " gay " 
session time is in the winter. 
In this land of earthquakes almost every building 
is of wood, and a stranger may not on first sight be 
impressed with the town's appearance. But if he desires 
to form a just estimate of its remarkable position and 
picturesque surroundings, let him take a walk to the 
top of Mount Victoria, with its signal station, where he 
can get a magnificent panoramic view of the whole of 
the surrounding country, the open sea with its high 
headlands, the entrance to the harbour between the 
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