The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-09-21

were shaken" ''IIe looketh ON the
earth, and it trembleth.
That downfall of tho New Zealand
terraces was only conspicuous cir
cumstance in tho history of the world.
Mountains are mortal, and they write
their autobiographies ON leaves of stone.
All the mountains of New Zealand were
nursed in cradle of earthquake by
parentage of rock and glacier, and they
will have their descendants. You can
hot bury mountains unobserved. There
must be black pail of smoke and dead
march sounded by orchestra of elements,
and thunders tolling at the passing fu'
neral of hills, and spade Of fire to dig
their grave, and the discharge of all
heavens artillery at their burial, and tho
solemn aud overwhelming litany sound-
cd, Earth TO earth, ashes to ashes, dust
to dust!"
You see it will be we'll for biologists
to como TO New Zealand. Ornithologists
ought also to come. Last evening, al
though it is here midwinter-New Yea
lands July corresponding with AmNri-
cas- January, although far from being
as cold-I was standing near clump
Of trees which still kept all their foliage
and there were bird voices absolutely
bewildering for numbers and sweetness
II the notes Of the music there rendered
by the winged choir had been written
ON each leaf, the rendering could not
have been more dulcet and resonant. It
would take more room and time than /
possess to describe the ornithological
tiches of New Zealand. First of all, its
Extinct moa, whose skeleton stands in
the museum of Christchurch-a wing
less bird. or only apologies for wing !,
but 10 feet inches high, neck like
giraffe and foot as wide as a cancels,
this moa, the largest bird whose skele-
ton has ever been reticulated, its eggs
the size Of a small bandbox.
What the mastodon was among
quadrupeds, and the ichthyosaurus was
among fishes, the moa was among birds.
But among the living birds in New
Zealand's svialy are the whale bird.
black on the back and white OH the
breast-morning rising from the night;
the huiz, sacred bird Of the aborig
ines-but all birds ought to be sacred.
The parson bird, so called because the
white feathers round its neck give it tie
appearance of white choker;" the
bell bird, with voice like chime from
the tower; the New Zealand pigec
three times as large as the American
pigeon and more beautiful only because
it has more expanse of wing and feath-
ers on which to be beautiful; the kea,
that wars ON the sheep, fastening itself
on the back of the live sheep and not
relaxing, but pecking its way through
the wool and the flesh until the sheep is
dead and the beak reaches the fat
around the kidneys, for which this bird
has special appetite-a habit learned
probably by pecking at the butchered
sheep around the door of the shepherds
hut; the storm petrol, like fake Of
the midnight; the crested penguin; the
paradise duck, its name taken from the
fact that its richness of color suggests
the Edenic-and birds with all wealth
Of feather, and curiosity of beak, and
eccentricity of habit, and defense Of
claw, and audacity of flight, and bear
ing all colors-the white running into
crimson, like snow melting into the
fire; the blue as if in some higher flight
it had brushed against the heavens, or
yellow as if it he'd nested among cow
slips and buttercups, or spotted and
fringed and ribboned and aflame until
there are no more fountains of radiance
into which they can possibly dip their
wings. Oh, for some scientific gunner
to do for New Zealand what Audubon
did for America! But, what | never
knew before, the native birds are dying
out before the foreign birds that have
been introduced, and the native flowers
are dying out before the foreign flowers.
Although now New Zealand is so
abundant in all styles Of quadrupcds, it
had not, when discovered, single quad
ruped except the rat, and foreign rat
having been introduced the aboriginal
rat has nearly disappeared. The English
grass brought here has killed the native
grass. The birds Of America, Europe
and Asia imported here have killed
the birds Of New Zealand. All the earth
has been ransacked and all the botanical
and archaeological and ornithologi al
and geological worlds have been called
upon TO make up the present and the
future of New Zealand.
Yea, come to this wonderland, all
who want to see enterprise and advance
ment. Daily newspapers, with scholar
ly men in editorial chairs and reporters
capable of pumping interviews from
the most reticent and cautious and make
sphinx speak. Two thousand miles Of
railroad. Over 1000 schools, with com
pulsory education, building up intelli-
gence for the present and affording 10
opportunity for ignorance i'll the next
century. Baths, thermal and chemical,
miles long and capable of putting an
end to rheumatisms and sciaticas and
invalidisms that have defied the mini
eral hydropathics of the continents
Lake Taupo, SO deep that no plummet has
ever touched bottom and occupying the
hollow of an extinct volcano, as a bright
child might fall to sleep in tho bed pre-
viously occupied by q grim giant. Yea,
come to New Zealand, the naturalists,
the artists and the students of men and
things, and come quickly, for nothing
remains here as it originally was ex-
cept the mountains, and even the noun
tains, as on the night of June 8, 1886,
when the walls Of "the terraces" fell
down at the blowing of the trumpets Of
terror. proved themselves no longer to
be the everlasting hills.
T. DE WITT TALMAGE.