FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 4, 1908. 
I 2 
I think there were many reared here this year, 
for there is often a flock of playful ones fly¬ 
ing about over Pigeon Island, and the old ones 
do not do that. The young ones grow up won¬ 
derfully quickly; perhaps are able to fly in about 
three weeks. They are eating miro berries and 
mapous now. The woodhens also eat the fallen 
mapou and red pine berries, but not miros. 
The kakas have just come, because there are 
a few rata blossoms coming out and plenty of 
Panax arborcum. 
Fish have been rather scarce this year for a 
wonder. 
I sent away two roas and five woodhens by 
the steamer for Rotorua. I had two kakapos 
that I got with difficulty with my clumsy dog, 
but they were very poor when I got them, and 
there was no hope of keeping them. They ate 
so little and worried so much to cut out of their 
cages that both were dead before the steamer 
came. 
I had also two gray kiwis, which are the hard¬ 
est of all to feed, for they will not eat the big 
worms until they are nearly starved. They want 
grubs and tiny little things. They were so re¬ 
duced after a fortnight in my store that I saw 
they would not stand many days on the steamer, 
so I put them out on Resolution before they got 
too weak to recover. 
On the 6th of December the sun came out, 
and having my boat packed I started for a camp¬ 
ing out cruise, for I find that I learn nothing 
about the inhabitants unless I camp out for a 
night or two. I was up Acheron Passage to 
the Gilbert Islands, but the swell made the land¬ 
ing disagreeable, so I camped in Occasional 
Cove on Resolution. It is a miserable place, 
with kiekies and ferns up to my neck, and no 
place for a walk. I heard several roas at night, 
and there were wekas at the tent, but no other 
birds except penguins, which were sitting about 
in dens shedding their feathers. 
Then I camped under the great scrub patches 
on Mount Foster. I wanted to train my dog to find 
kakapos, but found none, though I heard one or 
two there at night. But we gave that place a 
great hunting with a dog that would scent one 
a quarter of a mile away. Probably we took 
over a hundred kakapos out of that when we 
were hunting. Then on the 9th, when it was 
still beautifully fine and warm, I came to Mount 
Evans, on the south coast of Dusky, making a 
very long day of it, calling at various places. I 
did not see a single teal nor a robin, though 
the robin was always the first to meet at a new 
landing. Nor did I notice a single rata blos¬ 
som, so that they are very late this year. Mount 
Evans ought to be a good place for kakapos, 
and I never hunted there because it was too 
steep, yet I heard very few. Kakapos are demons 
to fight with their powerful beak and claws, and 
I cannot imagine a weasel killing one. It would 
take a ferret all his time. There cannot be any 
ferrets, because the wekas were there at my 
tent and others along the coast, and I know by 
experience at Te Anau that the wekas go at 
once before ferrets. 
I caught three kakapos there in three days’ 
hunting, all in very poor condition; no rata 
honey for them this year as yet. My dog has 
got the idea of looking for them, but is not good 
for birds. His snout is so short that I cannot 
fasten the muzzle on securely, and he is so small 
he can get in the holes, which are two very bad 
things; yet he is clever, and I might do worse. 
There were always robins on Pigeon Island, 
and especially on Parrot Island, until the rats 
left, and then the robins left. I have been to 
Five Fingers Peninsula and various places to 
look for them, but not one have I seen. I can¬ 
not believe that a weasel ever came on to those 
islands, for my new dog was just mad for hunt¬ 
ing the last of the rats, because I helped him 
with axe and spade, and made a great game of 
it to teach him to hunt a weasel, so that I am 
sure he would not pass the scent of a weasel 
now. And he is very keen-scented. The few 
rats we got were poor miserable little things, 
which suggested a long-continued sickness, and 
the same may have taken the robins, the rats 
being the distributors. Pigeon Island is just 
swarming with woodhens, and I have not missed 
a single chicken from those that live near the 
house. But it is evident that we had no useful 
information about weasels, even at home, or we 
would not have brought them to New Zealand. 
There is also a great scarcity of fish and sea 
birds in the sound all this year; and it cannot 
be the weasel that is affecting them, but it illus¬ 
trates the want of order in the seasons here, 
and the coming and going of things. Numbers 
of moki usually appear in October, but now it 
is December, and I have not seen them yet, nor 
the shoals of other fish, but the mysis have just 
come, and I suppose the fish will soon be here 
now, and then the birds and the cowfish. 
The parakeets are also absent, for the first time 
since I came here. 
I went to the head of Dusky Sound on the 
22d of January to call on the roadmen, because 
I thought I ought to do so, but did not stay long. 
That night I camped on Cooper Island, and 
there were plenty of kakapos drumming on the 
north side of the sound, but hardly one to be 
heard on the south side. This is the first time 
I have known them to breed two seasons in suc¬ 
cession. Where all the drumming was there was 
no place to leave my boat in safety, or even haul 
her out, so I had to stay on Cooper Island and 
go over when it was fine enough. 
My dog soon found me two nests of gray kiwi, 
with a pair in each, but would pass by a kakapo 
in a hole just as he would a penguin. The only 
ones he found were those that happened to be 
out in the ferns in the day time. However, I 
brought home a pair on the 27th, and they turned 
out so sulky that they would eat nothing but 
grass, and worked their lives out cutting their 
cages, so that they were dead in a week. One 
of them laid an egg in the cage. The four kiwis 
I put on Cooper Island. They are defenceless 
little things, and their presence shows that the 
weasels are not there yet. 
I went to the same place again on the 3d of 
February, and stayed ten days, most of them too 
wet and rough for me to cross. I had to let my 
dog kill a kakapo and praise him up for it, and 
then he soon found me some, for there are 
plenty up there in that high valley. They are 
a queer lot; some of them are tame the first day 
I get them, while others are as fierce as wild¬ 
cats, no matter how long I keep them. The first 
year I was here I had some tame like that, and 
by great good luck I got a pair to fill my order 
for Rotorua. One of them is a big old male 
that will eat out of my hand without ever at¬ 
tempting to bite. 
I brought home three on the 14th, after being 
two days stormbound on Resolution, where I 
let two others go. I kept the best ones, and 
have penned off half my store for them, so thal 
they have plenty of room to climb about fot 
exercise. Two of them are eating well; blu« 
peas and oats steeped, also gooseberries, so thai 
they will live There is no use me feeding then 
on the wild berries, for they would only starv< 
on the steamer, or where they are going to live 
if they would not eat what food is availabh 
there. The soft peas are sure to be good foo< 
for them, and it is a valuable discovery for met 
Yet one of those I have will not eat them, no 
anything else satisfactorily. It is very hard t 
starve it into eating, for this is the twelfth da; 
in the cage. Of course, I give it all sorts o 
leaves and moss, and everything I can think oj> 
I was out from the 7th to the 12th of Marc 
and had beautiful weather. When it does com 
fine here it is grand, especially at this time o 
the year. I wanted to photograph some of thi 
young kakapos, and found two nests with tw 
in each, but the dog destroyed them both befor 
I knew that he had them, and it was so vexin 
that I would not let him hunt any more. The< 
make their nests in very open holes, so th; 
any dog could get at them, and I cannot kec 
sight of him in the bush, so that I do not min 
him when he goes in a hole. The young om 
are just like young kakas, only a purer white i 
the down. I saw several parties of teal, vet 
much to my surprise, for I thought they ha 
gone for good, they had been away so long. Ahi 
three of those that used to live at Pigeon Islar 
have come back after being absent over eightee 
months. I know that they are the same on*! 
because they will pay no attention to me. 
they were strangers they would show a litt 
surprise at all events. 
The fish and sea birds came back in their o 
style about the end of February; and to-day, 
caught some fine fat cod very easily within! 
hundred yards of the boat shed. There is o 
thing pleasantly remarkable about the blue cc. 
in the fact that they never appear to have a? 
sickness, or parasites in their gills or flesh, 
is commonly the case with all the wrass fami 
the ling and the barracouta, and even the me 
have a little ring worm in the cavity of t 
body which I never saw in the cod. But it , 
quite a common thing to catch cod that ha:^ 
been bitten by other fish. I caught one recen 
that had nearly all its tail off, and its body 
badly crushed that it was stiff, so that it wot 
have been easy game for the next groper til 
saw it. These two things naturally go together 
that is, the police are efficient, and the cod 
kept in good order, while on the other haj 
such fish as the ling and Sebccstes percoides ;! 
nearly always sick with something or other, prei 
ably because no fish cares for them and they h;J 
no police to keep them in order. Therefore tlf 
cannot be so wholesome for our food as si 1 
as the cod. It is common for a disease to | 
sume a different form on the different hostst 
affects, and only the other day I read that sot 
of our worst diseases are supposed to be s- 
ondary stages of those on fish. 
The trumpeter is another fish that is kept 1 
good order by the prompt removal of all th« 
that have anything the matter with them. Its 
very few trumpeter that I catch—perhaps :»l 
twenty in a year—and yet several of them til 
have severe bites on them, and as we may <p 
