rd--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
the clever, cunning bird had glided from its shelter to another cover
further off.

After dinner was over and Domville had brought back the tin plates
and pannikins from the creek where he had washed them up, pipes were
lighted, and a few minutes smoking served to rest and refresh the men,
who had been working since their six o'clock breakfast. The daylight
hours were too precious however to be wasted in smoking. Trew and
Domville would not have had that comfortable nest-egg standing in their
name at the bank in Christchurch, if they had spent much time over their
pipes; so after a very short "spell" they got up from the fallen log of
wood which had served them for a bench, and suggested that F---- should
accompany them back to where their work lay. "You don't mind being
left?" asked F----. "Certainly not," replied I. "I have got the dogs
for company, and a book in my pocket. I daresay I shall not read much,
however, for it is so beautiful to sit here and watch the changing
lights