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Correspondence



back to some New Guinea camp, or river journey, and I see it all over

again, the throbbing of the native drums down in the villages, the

stamp of the feet in the dance, and even the finish of some of their

songs, with sounds palpably suggested by the call of the Paradise

Birds. What would New Guinea be like without this call echoing from

valley to valley.


That ear-splitting note of the Bell Bird can sound almost beautiful

in a Brazilian forest, but I have listened to it from far and near, trying

my best to believe it sounded like a bell when heard under these con¬

ditions, but I never could. I think its Brazilian name of Anvil Bird

fits it much better. So, when some exotic call sounds distracting to

us over here, try to think of it in its own surroundings, when it would

convey quite a different impression, even pleasant or beautiful.


After my return from Bolivia I spent two or three months at home

trying to readjust myself to civilization and then accepted a post

offered to me to look after some diamond mines in the far interior

of Brazil, where I stayed for three years. After that, I took up collecting

once more. Birds on the mines were hardly worth writing about,

although I did keep a few. It was a far better place for snakes than

birds, and I kept quite a number, and let me whisper it here, I believe

I am quite as fond of them as I am of birds, which is saying a lot.


The end .



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.


-NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND BIRDS ”


I fear that Mr. Porter’s article on New Zealand Birds (September, 1933)

will have been somewhat misleading to those of your readers who have never

visited this country.


Some of his remarks dealing with the subject of our native forests are,

quite candidly, nonsense. He writes of these forests : “. . . but little is

now left ... a few acres which someone has forgotten to burn. 5 ” Would it

surprise him to learn that one company alone, of which the writer knows,

has recently purchased over seven thousand acres covered with heavy forest—

this hardly sounds as if the bush remained only in tiny patches, does it ?

Has Mr. Porter ever halted upon the top of Mount Messenger and looked

about him ? To north, south, east, and west one sees nothing but range

upon range all clothed with native forest. Has he ever stood upon the top

of the Akataweras where the same sight meets the eyes ? The writer could

mention twenty such places where one can see - literally tens of thousands

of acres of heavy forest.



