130 
WILKINSON, Birds of Tararuas, N.Z. Luf oT 
a brood of ducklings. It is an interesting and pretty sight, when 
suddenly disturbed, to see the old birds using distress signals to 
entice intruders away from their precious brood. I was out 
once with a party when, on rounding a bend in the stream, we 
came right on top of a pair that had three young ones with 
them. I was so interested in watching the duck desperately 
using the broken wing stunt to attract our attention that I did 
not notice one of the party with his gun up ready to shoot until 
surprised by the order of “Look out." I immediately knocked 
up his gun, and after a rather heated discussion I persuaded him 
to let the Ducks alone, and thus prevented a tragedy from over¬ 
taking this little family. Where the sport in shooting birds with 
young ones like this comes in I cannot for the life of me 
understand. 
Hymenoloemus malacorhyttchus. Blue Duck.—This interest¬ 
ing and rare bird is now seen only in the very roughest gorges. 
We have followed up the different creeks on different parts of 
the ranges for years, but never managed to see the Whio, as 
they are known to the Maoris, until last Christmas (1923), 
when out on a Huia-hunting expedition. Climbing down a rough 
creek on the other side of the ranges we came on to three of 
these Ducks, that were feeding on some shingle beds. The birds 
at once took to the water, not attempting to fly, but working 
their way down the stream as fast as possible. They soon left 
us, as the creek was too rough for us to travel fast enough to 
keep up with them. However, about a quarter of a mile farther 
down we came on them again. This time two of them flew 
down stream round a bend, but the third one we could not find 
anywhere. On going on down stream on our way to the camp, 
the two that had flown down before now flew back over our 
heads on their way up stream. On a second trip after Huias in 
another locality some 12 miles away from where we had seen 
the first Blue Ducks, we came upon another pair, but unfortun¬ 
ately never got a good view of them, as the dog we had startled 
them and we never saw them again. I think when hard pressed 
this bird will hide in holes in the creek bank or under fern. 
Most of the twenty-four indigenous birds mentioned in these 
few notes I have had the pleasure of studying in their native 
haunts. Various reports of other native birds being seen on 
the Tararuas come to hand now and again. The North Island 
Robin ( Miro australis) was reported to have been seen by a 
reliable bird-observer in a certain valley on the ranges. I was 
in the vicinity of the place where it was seen, but never saw it. 
However, there is no reason why this bird should not be in that 
locality. Again, a member of the local tramping club informed 
me that he and a scientific friend had seen two Saddle-backs 
(Creadion carunciilatiis) on these mountains about eight years 
ago. There are plenty of valleys that have never been thoroughly 
explored, and I cannot see why the Saddle-back and even the 
