Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/178

 attack although in possession of firearms. They feared they would have been over-powered, and there is little doubt but they would have been. These events occurred in 1846.

John Healy, 1840-50, an ornithologist, who was making an exhaustive collection of New Zealand birds. He spent over a month with the author’s father (Mr. E. Hay, of Pigeon Bay) in 1847 or 1848, during which time he added materially to his specimens. Mr. Healy was collecting for the British Museum, and was specially anxious to secure a large black crow, which was very rare. Two of these birds had been shot before he came, and had been eaten. A few days after he had left Pigeon Bay, Peter Brown shot another, which was also eaten in a stew with pigeons, which were then very numerous. The author has only seen three of these birds, and two of those he saw after they had been shot. The third was secured by Peter Brown, and the author saw it two or three times before it was bagged. The bird was larger than a wild pigeon, and smaller than a fowl. It was glossy black, with a strong beak like a fowl’s. It had poor flight, and generally frequented the same part of the bush. Mr.