176 BIRD LIFE ON ISLAND AND SHORE 
slaughter of the innocents, his inexpungeable 
hatred of man, are condoned as we blink friends’ 
faults. ‘Though I do indeed feel sorrow for the 
silly little Kuaka and the wandering Parrot, naked 
of shelter above open strips of sea ’twixt islet and 
islet, yet it is pain only of the chastened sort, 
which lawgivers of the Dominion may be supposed 
to feel for the squatter class, whom season by 
season they do not cease to devour. 
At any rate, whatever his faults may be, the 
Sea Hawk has reached a perfection of altruism, 
at least in certain aspects of family life, which we 
poor mortals can never attain. He has solved 
difficulties which cannot amongst ourselves be so 
much as considered, and which must for ever 
militate against the selfless ideal of communism. 
With a fuller comprehension of these birds, 
respect, I say, grew and matured, until finally 
I came to have a deep admiration for creatures 
able to practise in their daily lives that essential 
part of Christianity—the spirit of the creed— 
able to reach the highest happiness by service, 
not selfishness, and, at least in the particular 
strange tripartite union watched, able to deter- 
mine that all pleasurable action should be enjoyed 
collectively. 
For many evenings after our encampment on 
Kotiwhenu, and ere those Sea Hawk, to whom 
the local rights of residence appertained, had 
