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it may only be a coincidence that the seals come ashore in November to breed. However, they cruised around Eesolution Island, and called again on the 28fch November, having been at anchor at various places, especially at Gilbert Islands and Luncheon Cove, the nearest harbours to the best seal rookeries on this part of the coast. I had always avoided hunting on Eesolution Island, for even with the muzzle on, the dog must do some harm, but it was necessary for me to go to see how our immigrant birds were getting on. On the 6th November we went there for a bond fide hunt. We found several roas, and, after a good walk, found a kakapo a long way up, and about two miles from where we had landed ten. This one was of the largest size, and rolling in fat, though the bush did not appear to be a good place for kakapos. The same afternoon we found two others in high condition on better ground. I could not expect to find any of our grey kiwis, because there were too few, and they are widely scattered on three sides of Eesolution Island. I had placed a few roas on Parrot Island, which is right out in all the stormy wind, and not big enough for a lasting colony. Having received instructions to send a few to the Agricultural Department, I went there for them on the 15th November, and soon found one in a hole, hatching an egg, the second one of the season, for there was a little chicken in the hole with the male hatcher, who was in very good condition, which never happens in a hatcher on the mainland. Afterwards we found another pair, with a chicken, and all three rolling in fat; so that theyjthrive in a new country, like many other immigrants. I was loth to put roas on Anchor Island at first, because it is such a wind-swept place, but now I find they may be put there, for it is very high, which suits the roa. The island is about three square miles in area. Grey kiwis are very hard to get here, for, though we went a special trip for them, we only got five in the best place we knew of. Since May we have caught and liberated on Eesolution Island, forty-seven kakapos and thirteen kiwis; on Harbour Island, three roas; on Long Island, seven kakapos: total, seventy birds. Grand total, 474. Since the 4th November I have had some captive roas for the steamer to take away. It requires very close attention to defend them from the sandflies, for the birds must have ventilation, and the flies are insidious. They killed one outright, and nearly killed two more, which, however, are recovering. I cover their sleeping-dens with scrim, but the birds are very clever in probing holes in it with their long beaks, and letting the flies in. The roas might flourish if they could get food in a country where there are no sandflies. I have also a pretty little chicken, which appears to be happy to sleep in the hollow of my hand; and it races about the room in bright lamp-light, but is afraid of the dog or its attendant flies, and hides away in the darkest place it can find. I think the kakapos are going to breed this year after an interval of two years. I have not heard them drumming yet, though they were getting their drums ready some months ago, but it may be because I am not near enough to one of their gardens, and I cannot leave home until the steamer comes and takes away those live birds.

Writing from Pigeon Island on the 10th September, 1897, Mr. Henry states, —■ July was very rough and windy. 18Jin. of rain fell, but the wind was the worst; then, as if to compensate us, August was beautiful, with only 3-21 in. of rain, and hardly any wind, but many frosty nights and sunny days — i.e., in Breaksea Sound, where we were for three weeks. We seldom have frost at Pigeon Island, but sometimes it is so severe away up Breaksea Sound that the ice on one occasion stopped our yacht, and we had to back out and go round it. There were several hundred acres of it in the shade half-way up Vancouver's Arm, in a big bight where there could have been no current, and no wind for several days. It was in. thick where we passed it at 3 p.m. We went right to the head of the Sound, and anchored for many days. I wanted to climb on the snow-covered spurs to look for takehe tracks, but, as that was a poor speculation alone, I thought I could perhaps add a little exploration by climbing the ridge I mentioned in my last letter. I found I greatly underestimated its height and steepness, probably because the surroundings are on a very large scale, and it took us several days to find a way and cut a track up it. We went about two miles north up the valley, rising 300 ft. in so doing, and then east, straight up the ridge through the bush, for 1,100 ft., when we got on the foot of an old snow-slide that saved a lot of cutting, but so steep that it was not safe to let go a hand-hold. When 1,950 ft, up, we had to give it up for that night, after losing a lot of time with cliffs and dense scrub. We rested the next day; but the next being a fine, dry morning, without oilskins or leggings, we got a start at daylight and were on top at 11 a.m. The height was 2,400 ft. with a steady glass, and the same temperature above and below (our aneroid has registered known heights correctly). All I could see was a small piece of water quite different from what I expected, and I could not make it fit any part of Hall's Arm, though it may have come further in under the spur to the left. The level ridge in front was just like the one I was on, and too steep to climb, so that my idea of a track that way to Manapouri is a mistake. It was sea-water, and directly east of where I stood, so it must be Hall's Arm. The country is very steep and rough, with rocky tops and but little grass, utterly useless except for climbers. There were great beds of snow, but no strange tracks. Kakapos were coughing around us at night, also grey kiwis, and we expected to procure a good lot, but the place was nearly covered with big stones, so that we could not get out half that the dog found, and not a single kiwi amongst them. We came away with eight kakapos and two roas on the 27th August. There was little wind, so we had mostly to use the oars, and got to Beach Harbour, where I put our bird-passengers in the dingey, and placed them on Eesolution Island, across the passage, as it was quite calm. The roas I put on Harbour Island, where I had previously put a big female.