File:Mutton birds and other birds (1914) (14562244617).jpg

Identifier: muttonbirdsother00guth (find matches)
Title: Kaka on nesting tree, in Mutton birds and other birds
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Guthrie-Smith, H. (Herbert), 1861-1940
Subjects: Birds -- New Zealand
Publisher: Christchurch, N.Z. : Whitcombe and Tombs
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
in my hands, was worked as soft and pliable as silk. It was then attached to the larger nestling's leg so that at each snatch the disturbed youngster sung out; thus again I got exposures, and, what was more interesting, began to get an inkling of the parent bird's intelligence. In fact, during this day and afterwards she began to lose all fear. Perched within two feet of my arms she would watch me in her inquisitive, parrot manner; then with an easy hop or silent flight would peer into the gloom of the nest, her head first on one side and then on the other and appear to be watching the agitations and tremors of the flax line. During the last day of our acquaintance I am sure she knew that in some wonderful way, I, although fifteen feet distant, was somehow or other disturbing her children. She had, in fact, worked out cause and effect; just as the ranging dog, who notices beside him a small stone in motion, smells it, looks back at the master who has flung it, and presently returns to heel. PLATE XXXVII.
Text Appearing After Image:
Kaka on nesting tree. AND OTHER BIRDS 83 Often before I knew this Parrot well, I own I had thought her merely and solely philosophic, her solicitude over the manner in which her chicks were disturbed deeper than over what she might reasonably have believed their danger and pain. It was not until I saw her moved that justice Avas accorded to her qualities of heart. Six months later I re-visited this tree with McLean, and from the worn state of its interior and the signs of traffic about its innnediate vicinity have no doubt the twins grew up and reached maturity. In its cavity, trodden and fouled, we discovered a penny—one of the coins used in the tin mug; and which must have been jerked out; and it was with this lucky penny in my pocket that we found that same day our first Kiwi burrow.

Note About Images