" The Touch of a Vanished Hand."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6350, 22 September 1888, Page 3

" The Touch of a Vanished Hand."

To come upon one of the famous "Out in. the Open" chapters in the Country Journal rrm always a pleasure. To find the last

of them published after the sterling man ■ who wrote it had been, carried to his grave, j is one of the moat touching experiences, j We cannot do better than quote here a charming passage :— What lias become of that charming songster, the larger bell-bird (Anthornis melanocepTiala), indigenous to the Chathamsi* During the past sumnor and autumn months, I rambled from wooded Wharekauri in the North, to Xc Baki in the extreme West, thence to To Wakarn. in the East, explored the gullies about Onenga and Manukau, without once sighting the bird or hearing the gash of its wild notes. It was only during a solitary ramble in the silent ferny depths of tree-clad Pipitarawai that I met with, these beautiful bird?, and was able to call down several within the distance of a few feet : now with sudden flutter, with quick flirting of the wings, they perched near and nearer, with quaint motions, shy or confident their mien, as the whim took them, through leafy openings, with bright enquiring glances peered down on the intruder. Then one stood charmed, and listened to the fitful outpourings of their delightful melody. A concert to be remembered, held under the arching roof of spreading boughs, wrea-hed with drooping bannerols of fern fronds, filmy and translucent, that tempered daylight in the moss-flecked nisUs of this temple of Nature, as yet unscathed in the restless search for gain. It wa9 like a dream of old New Zealand over thirty years ago. Closed for ever is that clear, observant eye; gone to the land of shadows is that bright' spirit; in the lonely grave rests that gentle student of nature. Like the things of old New Zealand, he loved so well and described so reverently, so charmingly, with such fulness of knowledge, we have lost him* Peace be to his honoured ashes !