a clearing; the rustle among the lofty tree tops made a delicious
murmur high up in the air; a waft of cool breeze flitted past us
laden with the scent of newly-cut wood (and who does not know that
nice, _clean_ perfume?); innumerable paroquets almost brushed us
with their emerald-green wings, whilst the tamer robin or the dingy
but melodious bell-bird came near to watch the intruders. The sweet
clear whistle of the tui or parson-bird--so called from his glossy
black suit and white wattles curling exactly where a clergy-man's
bands would be,--could be heard at a distance; whilst overhead the
soft cooing of the wild pigeons, and the hoarse croak of the ka-ka
or native parrot, made up the music of the birds' orchestra. Ah,
how delicious it all was,--the Robinson Crusoe feel of the whole
thing; the heavenly air, the fluttering leaves, the birds' chirrups
and whistle, and the foreground of happy, healthy men!

Rose and I had enough to do, even with Nettle's assistance, in
acting as police to keep off those bold thieves, the wekas, who are
as impudent as they are tame and fearless. In appearance they
resemble exactly a stout hen pheasant, without its long tail; but
they belong to the apterix family, and have no wings, only a tiny
useless pinion at each shoulder, furnished with a claw like a small
fish-hook: what is the use of this claw I was never able to
discover. When startled or hunted, the weka glides, for it can
scarcely be called running, with incredible swiftness and in perfect
silence, to the nearest cover. A tussock, a clump of flax, a tuft
of tall tohi grass, all serve as hiding-places; and, wingless as she
is, the weka can hold her own very well against her enemies, the
dogs. I really believe the great desire of Brisk's life was to
catch a weka. He started many, but used to go sniffing and barking
round the flax bush where it had taken refuge at first, long after