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Sydney Portei—Notes on New Zealand Birds



and the high big-brimmed Colombian straw hat. I had been forced

to adopt this dress off the beaten tracks as ordinary riding kit proclaimed

the foreigner and caused too much excitement among the people. The

room I entered was merely a bare barn with an earthern floor, but I

soon had my camp bed up and the owner eventually sold me eggs

and a fowl. As it happened I was able after all to leave the valley the

next day, and unwillingly travelled for days with a noted brigand and

his band, who had a price on his head and was carrying out raids on

cattle and horses even during this journey, which was all very exciting

and romantic but hardly the topic for a bird journal. It is difficult

to separate purely bird matters from experiences with mammals,

reptiles, and natives as they are all so mixed up together in the life

of a collector.


While in this village I saw many Parrotlets in and out of the thatch

of some of the houses, but was unable to identify them without shooting

one, but my guns were packed and I thought it best to let them remain

so and not excite interest in them, for by then many of the people had

put in an appearance. The old lady was very frank the next day and

told me that being a foreigner I was a friend, but if I had been

a Colombian she would not have taken me in and I should have been

stripped of all I had, for it appeared that the Clovernment treated them

as outlaws. I was presented with eggs before I left, perhaps because

the night before I had given her medicine for her fever. Both on entering

and leaving the valley I saw birds I had not met with elsewhere, and

so I imagine it might have some surprises in store. As I do not suppose

I shall ever go that way again, I pass this information on to others,

although I have always had the Patia in my mind with the idea of

returning there one day. Who knows ?


(To be continued.)



NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND BIRDS


By Sydney Porter


A hundred years or so ago New Zealand must surely have been the

loveliest country on the face of the earth. A land composed of great

rolling mountains, deep and precipitous valleys, and here and there



