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been swept by fire. Of late years very large quantities of manuka firewood have been taken from the terraces, and the tops left caught fire somehow, so anything in the way of carved posts burnt. From what I have seen of the place, next to timber-cutting, for destroying, bush-cattle are the worst. There is hardly a place they will not go, and they break and tear at supplejacks and other undergrowth for feed. In some places I could not have believed that cattle had made the tracks unless I had seen their marks, and also knowing there was nothing else there to do it. Feed is scarce, so they have to travel far to get it, and very often get killed in the attempt, as the island abounds with small overgrown precipices, that one does not see till nearly over them. Following down the course of the numerous creeks one has frequently to get up into the bush to avoid sheer drops of 20ft. to 40ft. over huge boulders. The creeks are mostly dry in summer—in fact, nearly always so except when raining; then they flood and carry everything before them, leaving deep water-holes, the water in which soon disappears, to appear again down near the sea. The nature of the bush on the island is different from the southern island : the undergrowth of supplejacks and small shrubs is there, but it is dry, and lacks the wealth of ferns and moss, except in the gullies; the moss and vegetable mould is so dry that very little would set it on fire. Even after all the rain that had fallen, it was not by any means wet. The steep, precipitous hills are covered with huge loose boulders, held up by roots of trees, and the least thing dislodges them, and they come clattering down into the gullies below. The island is only of use for the purpose intended—namely, as a bird preserve, as the small portion of flat land, about 200 or 300 acres, is all that would be counted on to grow anything; what there is of it is of the best, and the Little Barrier has been noted in the past for its kumeras, which grow to an enormous size. Peaches grow there, but are very much blighted, and seem soon to exhaust themselves on account of there being no frost to rest them. Melons of both sorts do well; and, in some parts, strawberries, which ripen before those on mainland. The sides of the lower hills and terraces do not take grass well, as the roots get killed in the hot, dry summer. I believe water could be obtained on the flat at no great depth, as there are springs at different places just at high-water mark, and, with the aid of a small windmill, raised for irrigation purposes if it is contemplated to use the flat as a nursery garden. I have planted several seeds of the Indian teaplants on the island, and given others to the Natives; also the best Havana tobacco and American white maize-corn. There is a very remarkable rock that can be seen on approaching the island, but no idea of the size can be obtained until one climbs the ridge leading to it, and it is only at its foot, with the kauri alongside, that its height is realised. It is principally granite, but at a good height from the ground there is a vein of some brown crystal in sharp needles that has a very curious appearance. What it is I do not know, as it is ungetatable, and to climb down in the bush beneath to find pieces would have taken more time than I could spare, as one has to be out of the bush by dark, it being impossible to travel through it at night. I found several bits of quartz with large transparent crystals in them, but no sign of any mineral; but there is no reason for none being there, as no proper search has been made. Referring to the numerous adzes found on the island, it is probable that in olden time canoes were made there on the flat, the Natives felling the kauri up the gullies, shaping them, and burning out the inside with hot stones, adzing down as burnt, as it would have been a very long job, if they had not used fire, to simply chip away with stone adzes. Many of those found are broken, and have been broken by use on the island. It would be very interesting to dig about the old residential pa sites on the hills, which, from their appearances, never seem to have been disturbed, and numerous old Maori implements that are now getting so scarce would probably be found near the surface, as there has been nothing much to bury them, being on the hills. The Taranaki edible fungus is in great quantity on the island. Of course, the native birds constitute the great charm of the place, and during my visits I have had opportunity of observing them and seeing the nests of many varieties. Close by my camp was a nest of young bell-birds (korimako of the Maori), and I watched the old ones feed them; aud it is my idea that the birds do not get killed by the bees when on the flowers looking for honey, but when seeking for food for their young, as I frequently saw one of the old birds catch a fly and take it to the nest. If there had been bees on the island, and it happened to have been one, the bird would have been stung, and died, and so would its young. The old birds do not feed their young on honey, but insects; and I believe the general idea is that the birds get stung while seeking honey, and thrust their tongues into the flower, and, if there is a bee there, get stung. So some of them may, but, I think, only on the puriri, it being about the only flower in the bush up here that would hide a bee. On a former visit the birds were in full song, and for half an hour in the morning the effect of so many birds singing at once was something to be long remembered. The tuis start first, then the bell-birds; the blackbirds and thrushes join in—very nice in their way, and charming on the mainland, but, when one wants to hear the native birds alone, a nuisance—such a number of blackbirds and thrushes there are now on the island, blown there by the wind, like the quail and other foreign birds. There are also starlings, goldfinches, greenfinches, sparrows, skylarks, and one or two Australian magpies. There are a few hawks, of two sorts, but they must be very few, as I never saw any. There are a few native quail, so the Natives say; the Californian quail are in quantities on the terraces. There are a very few cats left that have gone wild, and, where the dogs used often to kill them, now it is seldom that they come across them. It is hard to say if there are any kiwis left; if there are, they must be very few, as there are no signs in the bush of a morning of where they have fed at night. I observed the time of nesting of some of the birds. I do not know if it is in advance of the mainland, not having a copy of Buller's " Birds" to refer to. Bell-birds, or korimako, nest towards the end of November, in tall manuka—a rough nest of sticks, moss, and bits of wool; pigeons, middle of September, on tall trees on the range—a flat nest of small sticks; miromiro, in November;