enjoyed every moment of that long Midsummer
holiday most intensely, though I fear I must have wearied our dear,
charming host, by my incessant questions about the names of the trees
and shrubs, and of the habits and ways of the thousands of birds. It was
all so new and so delightful to me,--the green gloom, the hoarse croak
of the ka-ka, as it alighted almost at our feet and prepared, quite
careless of our vicinity, to tear up the loose soil at the root of a
tall tree, in search of grubs. It is a species of parrot, but with very
dingy reddish-brown plumage, only slightly enlivened by a few, scarlet
feathers in the wing. The air was gay with bright green parroquets
flitting about, very mischievous they are, I am told, taking large tithe
of the fruit, especially of the cherries. Every now and then we stood,
by common consent, silent and almost breathless to listen to the
Bell-bird, a dingy little fellow, nearly as large as a thrush with the
plumage of a chaffinch, but with such a note!--how can I make you hear
its wild, sweet, plaintive tone, as a little girl of the party said,
"just as if it had a bell in its throat;" but indeed it would require
a whole peal of silver bells to ring such an exquisite chime. Then we
crept softly up to a low branch, to have a good look at the Tui, or
Parson-bird, most respectable and clerical-looking in its glossy black
suit, with a singularly trim and dapper air, and white wattles of very
slender feathers--indeed they are as fine as hair-curled coquettishly
at each side of his throat, exactly like bands. All the birds were
quite tame, and, instead of avoiding us, seemed inclined to examine
us minutely. Many of them have English names, which I found very
tantalising, especially when, the New Zealand Robin was announced, and
I could only see a fat little ball of a bird, with a yellowish-white
breast. Animals there are none. No quadruped is indigenous to New
Zealand, except a rat; but then, on the other hand, we are as free from
snakes and all vermin as if St. Patrick himself had lived here. Our host
has turned several pheasants into this forest, but they increase very
slowly on account of the wekas. However, the happiness of this morning
was made complete by our putting up two splendid rocketers.

We could only make our way by the paths which have been cut through
the Bush; a yard off the track it is impossible to stir for the dense
undergrowth. In the ravines and steep gullies formed by the