Page:Rambles in New Zealand.djvu/71

out of doors at home; one is very beautiful. We approached the lake about sundown, and I was rejoiced to see a "tiwai" waiting for us among the reeds, as I was tired with carrying so many specimens. I was no sooner seen than several lads set off to relieve me and Moning-'aw of our burthens, and carry us into the canoe. How such an act of courtesy came to be extended to my companion, I do not know, he being a slave. I suppose, however, they saw that he was a favourite of mine, and thought to propitiate me by it. There was a large flock of the small black and white tropic bird (I do not know its scientific name) hovering over the lake. These were the same birds I saw among the lavas of Tongadido. They have white bodies with some black feathers about the wings, black marks round the eyes, and the characteristic long feathers in the tail. There were also large and small gulls; a small black-and-white cormorant, and a large black one; and plenty of ducks. They were, however, all as wild as ever I saw the same kinds of birds in England, except the cormorants. These and the ducks are common about every river and lake; but the tropic birds I never saw anywhere else except on the coast, and the gulls were rare in the other lakes. The great abundance of all birds seen on Rotuite was no doubt on account of its shallowness, and the great quantity of mud it contained. The natives said that there were no fish in the lake except what I saw, and which were not more than an inch long. The natives had vast quantities of these dried in baskets, which they cook by making them into a kind of soup, but which did not smell sufficiently nice to tempt me to taste. The tent was pitched under some Totara trees, in a very fine open wood, at a sufficient distance from the native huts to avoid fleas, and, for a wonder, with the mouth to leeward. They generally made a practice of pitching it with the door fronting the wind, unless I took care to see that they did the contrary. I could only account for its being otherwise