File:Mutton birds and other birds (1914) (14745542461).jpg

Identifier: muttonbirdsother00guth (find matches)
Title: Pied Shags and nests, 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

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my friends of the launch also had let the mill-workers know that we particularly wanted the birds let alone. As in all other cases people had been exceedingly obliging, I cannot suppose that on this one occasion there should have been an exception. The shaggeries were miles apart. There were, moreover, no signs of dead or maimed birds, no derelict eggs or chicks rotting on the nests, neither were there shot marks perforating the leaves of the branches in close proximity to the nests. I have never yet been able to solve the puzzle in any way quite satisfactory to myself, but two nests only remained in use. Something had gone wrong.* *It is whilst watching the manners and customs of these bird communities, that we realize the disabilities of our own race and none, I think, will deny that mankind might with advantage have been hatched from the shell. Oology would have been given a new interest, the fancy of the lad and the whim of the collector would have been raised to the high regions of science. PLATE LXVII.
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Pied Shags and nests. AND OTHER BIRDS 173 By the coloration and markings of the shell, the philosopher, the anthropologist, and the )ihysieian would have been able to indicate the character of the future child. It would have brightened genealogical records, for, after repair, all empty shells would have been carefully preserved. Personally, I can imagine nothing more inspiring for a child, than to have pointed out to it the tiddly little chamber of carbonate of lime from which some national hero—some great flockmaster, or stockowner had chi))ped. The mere sigiit of the shell would stimulate the lad to long for sheep himself. The rich markings would be an incentive and an ideal to the mother also, and just as pious parents in Scotland, used to pray that every boy siiould be a minister, so each good New Zealandcr would desire to hatch a squatter. At the very earliest period, specialization of education would be possible, for, reasoning by analogy, tbe most brilliantly marked and deeply hued

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