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I have plenty of carrots to feed kakapos, also apples, but they will eat little or nothing for about three days, and I do not like letting them go in "that condition at this season. This time I brought one home to experiment with. It was quite weak, and on the fourth night in captivity it ate two apples and a lot of green rye-grass. Next night it ate all the grass I put in, to my astonishment, for it was enough to feed a goat, also some carrots. After that it was a perfect glutton, so I had to let it go in a hurry, to save food. We sailed on the 28th to the head of Wet Jacket Arm, calling at various nooks and corners to get acquainted with the country. We saw the copper-mine hut, which we will visit next trip, and camped at the head of the arm for two days, bringing away five kiwis and seven kakapos, which we liberated at Barshell Cove. Wet Jacket Arm appeared a beautiful place in the fine weather and clear water. All that is wanted here is more sunshine to make all these places pleasant. Our kakapos were only two nights in the cages, and some of thejn ate carrots, others nothing. The kiwis we can always let go in good heart, because, if they do not eat their strips of fish, I take each one and make it eat what I think is good for it. Some of them seem to like it, and only look surprised when they have swallowed it. 30th September. —We were at Cascade Cove last week after grey kiwis, and succeeded in getting five, besides two kakapos, which we liberated north of our house on the peninsula on Eesolution Island. Three times we climbed over 2,000 ft., looking for tracks in the patches of snow in the bush, but saw no strange ones. 16th October. —We have just returned from Wet Jacket Arm, where we visited the copper-mine hut, but there was no anchorage, so we had to anchor on the other side by Oke Island. Thence I went across the sound in the dingey, and after a long hunt in the new scrub I found the old track to the mine, and followed it a long way, but was too late to get there. After a few days, too wet for anything, we went hunting to the north-east of Oke Island, and soon got our cages full—sixteen kakapos, two kiwis, and one roa, which we intended to liberate on Five Fingers Point, but were stopped by rough winds. We therefore liberated eight kakapos at Detention Cove, on Long Island, where we had formerly put three females. It is a good place. The others we let out at the head of Duck Cove, on Eesolution Island, all except the roas, which I intended to keep on an island for Wellington. We were wind-bound until to-day, when we got home at 2 p.m. While delayed at Cook's Harbour I put our fine big roa on a little island close by to relieve it from its prison in a box, and when we went for it this morning it was gone. Ido not think it escaped by swimming, though it only had about ten yards to go; it may have got ashore. The kakapos are going to breed this season. I know by the development of the drums, two of which I am sending to Dr. Parker. I wish I had a little watercress seed, for I have seen a few places in our wanderings where a pinch would have increased the food, and it can do no harm in this country. If there was a pinch dropped in the tarns on the saddles it would find its way into every suitable place, and might be very welcome to paradise-ducks. Every little helps, and I think it might possibly double their supply of food, for there is great scarcity of anything of that sort. I tried the wild rice in a variety of places and even made artificial water-holes, but not a grain of it grew or sprouted, I sowed watercress at Te Anau at the mouth of little creeks, and saw it become beneficial in about three years, in places where it can never do any harm. I could not get the seed in Dunedin, so I brought a few roots in a box, and put them in an unsuitable place here, where they did not grow; but the seed I could keep any time, and carry about with me. For many months after I came home this year we often fished about, but only got one groper. They often frequent cliffs near the mouths of big streams, and are found at Fanny Bay and Supper Cove. I knew where to go for them ; but the stream in Facile Harbour is insignificant, and I did not expect them there, and thought the upper end a poor place for fish. On the 29th July we were up there, and accidentally saw a lot under us, near the big cliff at the tail of the bank formed by the stream. We took four, from 8 lb. to 15 lb. weight; and again, on the 9th August, sth September, and Ist October they were there, and again on the 25th October, sth, 14th, 21st, and 27th November, and 7th December. I think they often stay in a place like that, so as to be near a good hunting-ground for flounders, though it is very few flounders we see except what we find inside the gropers. Bth November. —The schooner referred to in my notes about seals was here when I should have gone to Cascade for live roas, but I did not like to go away then. She did not leave until the 4th, and then it was too late for me to go, because we never know when we may get back, so I decided to get them on Eesolution Island. We had never seen one of our imported birds, and long ago I saw I would have to go for a hunt there, to report if they still lived. The " Hinemoa" was due on the 9th, and on the 4th we went to Eesolution Island, climbed the hill, and saw the schooner had left her moorings. We got two roas, but no signs of kakapos, though we saw some of their work on the Panax. On the 6th we went again to where we had liberated ten kakapos, and a long way up on the south-west side of Eoa Mountain, perhaps 1,500 ft. high, and two miles from the landing, when we found a kakapo of the largest size and rolling in fat —which was important, because it does not appear to be a very good place for them. In the afternoon, on better ground, we got two other fat kakapos, but the dog rolled one of them about in the slush, doing great harm with its muzzle. With the roas we were very unfortunate, because we did not get one in a hole, but sitting outside where the dog could start them and run them about until they were nearly naked and bruised, so that I chopped the heads off two for charity. If they run down hill, we cannot get through the scrub very quickly, and it is a very bad job. All the rest of this year we hardly had a feather out of a roa, because they were in holes, but coming on towards summer they sit more outside, and the feathers are looser, and they are higher up and much harder to find. I have only three roas, and want one more, but will not go near kakapos again. There are plenty of roas and we can easily put them back again. 16th November. —Some time last year we put four roas on Parrot Island, and in March last I

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