THE STITCHBIRD 39 
or did he show himself as do the New Zealand 
Dottrel to beguile us from the true site? Why, 
for instance, was that mass of high astelia visited ? 
If with such eagerness, why but once? Was the 
female really sitting there, and did he fear to 
visit her again? Yet if sitting and he anxious 
about our presence, why should he call on her 
at all? She can’t be sitting, we argued, or else 
we should see him carrying food to her. She 
must be sitting, we argued, and when he dis- 
appears it is to call her off and feed her unseen ; 
but if he is feeding her, why is nothing carried 
in his beak? Why does he fly between two 
localities ? Lastly arises the doubt, but does he 
really do so—is it not another male ? 
There were endless contradictions to be recon- 
ciled, likelihoods to be interpreted, improbabilities 
to be solved. There were opportunities of error 
in every foot of every yard of the ten thousand 
acres contained in the island. In the earlier. 
weeks of our search before we had localised mated 
cock and hen, every Stitchbird movement was a 
flash amongst solid steadfast boles or a dive into 
seas of greenery. As lovers revolve a glance or 
word, such clues as we possessed could by con- 
stant cogitation be made luminous as we inclined 
or darkly dim. For my part I anticipated we 
should eventually discover the nests in clumps 
of astelia, my companion that we should obtain 
