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Bird Islands of New Zealand
This book gives the most comprehensive description so far to appear of the diverse islands lying off the coast of New Zealand - from the furthest north Three Kings to the Snares and other islands of the subantarctic.
202 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1959
About the author
Robert Wilson
229 books4 followersLibrarian note:
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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 8, 2025
Wilson accompanied Stead and Buddle onto the offshore islands of northern and southern NZ during the early 1930's. There are original black and white (of course) images referenced in the charming, clipped text and exerpts from daily diaries.
The accounts include the boat trips, accomodation on the islands, living off the land and sea, how to catch weka, bush canaries (mohua or yellow head), Maori occupation, natural history, reconstruction of a broken moa egg - all told matter of factly.
Two enormous pohutukawa in early flower contain 200 tui, seabirds are in their millions until cats, rats and stoats wipe them out in within short order. Weka wipe out seabird colonies, moreporks fill every tree hole, lizards scamper on the ground.
Wilson puts a tuatara in a box where next day it lays its eggs. Tuatara eggs are found all over the ground. He shoot rare birds for museum collections and other brds for food because first and foremost Wilson is a hunter and fisher.
Kahawai shoals surface feed churning the water so it sounds like a rainstorm from half a mile away. A pod of 12 dolphin feed on 100 pound stingray. They find nests of every native species and discover previously unknown distributions, sub species, behaviours.
It is just so extraordinary. The life of the islands and surrounding sea. Although I have visited but a few of these islands with wonder, compared to these descriptions, my baseline is a sadly extremely depleted one.
The fact that Edgar intended to write up his diaries but died before this happened points to a sad loss of extraordinary knowledge which Wilson has in part, thankfully, tried to address.
Lots of other intrepid souls, including women, accompany them on these adventures, some over weekends and others on month long expeditions. Oh to be a well connected wealthy man prior to the Depression.
To read this I had to order it from the archives.
The accounts include the boat trips, accomodation on the islands, living off the land and sea, how to catch weka, bush canaries (mohua or yellow head), Maori occupation, natural history, reconstruction of a broken moa egg - all told matter of factly.
Two enormous pohutukawa in early flower contain 200 tui, seabirds are in their millions until cats, rats and stoats wipe them out in within short order. Weka wipe out seabird colonies, moreporks fill every tree hole, lizards scamper on the ground.
Wilson puts a tuatara in a box where next day it lays its eggs. Tuatara eggs are found all over the ground. He shoot rare birds for museum collections and other brds for food because first and foremost Wilson is a hunter and fisher.
Kahawai shoals surface feed churning the water so it sounds like a rainstorm from half a mile away. A pod of 12 dolphin feed on 100 pound stingray. They find nests of every native species and discover previously unknown distributions, sub species, behaviours.
It is just so extraordinary. The life of the islands and surrounding sea. Although I have visited but a few of these islands with wonder, compared to these descriptions, my baseline is a sadly extremely depleted one.
The fact that Edgar intended to write up his diaries but died before this happened points to a sad loss of extraordinary knowledge which Wilson has in part, thankfully, tried to address.
Lots of other intrepid souls, including women, accompany them on these adventures, some over weekends and others on month long expeditions. Oh to be a well connected wealthy man prior to the Depression.
To read this I had to order it from the archives.
Displaying 1 of 1 review