Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/51

Rh deep crevices and fissures, which cleave and seam the sheer faces of almost inaccessible cliffs, that in places bound as with massive ramparts the higher mountains spurs. Sometimes, but rarely, the agile musterer, clambering amongst these rocky fastnesses, has found the entrance to the ‘run’ used by the breeding pair, and has peered with curious glances, tracing the worn track till its course has been lost in the dimness of the obscure recesses, beyond the climber’s reach.



In these retreats the home or nesting place generally remains inviolate, as its natural defences of intervening rocks defy the efforts of human hands, unless aided by the use of heavy iron implements that no mountaineer would be likely to employ.”

Even if the ardent collector manages, with great care, to reach the nest, and is able to obtain a foothold on the side of the cliff, he will often find that a crowbar will make little impression on the opening of the “run,” and nothing less