PORANGAHAU—THE CASPIAN TERN 3 
The Black-backed Gulls had selected their breed- 
ing sites. The Kittywake colony, though not 
intending immediately to lay, were yet annoyed 
at approach to their future nesting quarters, and 
in clouds swooped upon us with angry cries. 
Ability “to look before and after” has been 
claimed as the special prerogative of man, proud 
man; but I can find no sharp line of demarca- 
tion. Doubtless he can recollect further back 
and foresee more clearly, that is all. We and our 
fellow-mortals, the beasts of the field, are digged 
alike from the same pit. There is no sudden 
break in nature. When it may seem so to our 
purblind eyes, we are no wiser than the child 
who marvels at the change from shell to chick. 
The Kittywakes of Porangahau foresaw the use 
to which that particular bit of beach was shortly 
to be put, as clearly as the architect when selecting 
the site of his future edifice. 
Before proceeding further with remarks on the 
Terns, Gulls, and Kittywake haunting these dunes 
and shores, a few sentences may be devoted to 
the topography of the locality. The Porangahau 
River flows throughout its last reaches betwixt 
steep banks cut out of soft marl rock. Attempting 
Redbill—H. ceematopus unicolor. Our three tame specimens of this 
breed, free, of course, and with the run of Tutira Lake, its shores 
and marshes, would habitually share with tame Pukeko frag- 
ments of hard biscuit and wheat as fed to poultry. 
