BELLBIRD HOLLOW

Forest and Bird, Issue 53, 1 August 1939, Page 15

BELLBIRD HOLLOW

By Flora Patie

Children Page .. .

ELSA and Don Grey loved their new home near the hills, where they had lived now for six months. It was one of the finest sheep stations in Hawke’s Bay, but the children’s chief interest was in the forest beyond the homestead. They had explored part of a bush-clad gorge, where a little creek ran over its stony bed. Near the entrance to the gorge there was a hollow where the creek widened into a pool of clearest water, shaded by the trees which met overhead. “It was the very place for fairies,” so Elsa said. It was there that Elsa and Don first heard the chime of the bellbird, and they named it “Bellbird Hollow.” One afternoon, as they passed by the sheepyards on their way in from school, the children heard their father talking to the shepherd about burning off the bush on the lower hills. “Oh, Daddy!” cried Elsa, “not our Bellbird Hollow! Oh, please don’t burn the bush there.” The children slid off their ponies and ran over to their father. “Daddy,” said Don, “we have such fun up in the forest. Couldn’t you come with us to-night to hear the birds’ good-night song? Mother has promised to take us after tea.” His father laughed. “I’m too busy to think about birds. Off you go to your mother.” A few minutes later, Elsa and Don dashed into the house calling: ’’Mother Mother! Where are you?” When the children told her their trouble, Mrs. Grey said: “Daddy doesn’t understand what Bellbird Hollow means to us. Let us hope he will change his mind. Don’t worry any more about it, darlings. Look what has come in to-day’s mail.” She held up a large envelope. “Oh! Oh!” they both cried, “our ‘Forest and Bird’ journal! Could we have just one peep before tea?” “Yes,” replied their mother, “if you get your work done quickly.” When they sat together on the window-seat, looking at the bird pictures, Don said: “Let us show this to Daddy when he comes in.” “What are you going to show me?” called a merry voice, and Mr. Grey came striding into

the room. He caught up Don and sank into an easy chair with the little boy on his knee. Elsa ran to him with the journal, saying: “Look at the lovely birds, Daddy.” Mr. Grey frowned. “Birds again! Bothersome little things, that’s what they are; they’re eating the fruit wholesale.” “But we can easily spare them some,” said Elsa, “after all the work they have done for us in the garden.” Just then Mrs. Grey called them to tea. As the sun was setting, the children and their mother wandered into the leafy shade of Bellbird Hollow. They found a comfortable seat on the rocky edge of the fairy pool and waited quietly for the song of the birds. At first there was a solemn stillness, broken only by the tinkling of the creek and the faint stirring sound of insects in the forest, “like the fairies whispering,” said Elsa. As the shadows deepened they heard a great twittering in the trees. “The birds are coming home for the night,” said Mrs Grey. “See them

flitting about. Some of them like to play just as you do at bed-time.” “How funny,” said Don. “Do birds really play, Mother?” “Certainly they do; have you never seen them around the bird-bath? But, listen! Now they are beginning to sing.” The forest rang with the happy bird voices bellbirds, tuis, robins, fantails, grey warblers, and all the other little songsters took their parts in the wonderful chorus. “If only Daddy had come with us!” sighed Elsa. By the time they reached the garden gate it was dusk, and there was Mr. Grey waiting for them. “I was beginning to think I should have to come and look for you,” he said. “I’ve been listening to your birds, children; it’s the first time I have really noticed their singing.” “You should have been as near to them as we were,” said Don. “It was great!” After the children had gone to bed, Mr. Grey picked up the “Forest and Bird” magazine, and as he glanced carelessly through it, the story of

the destruction of some of the beautiful forests of New Zealand caught his eye. “It is too bad!” he remarked. “After all, it’s only a matter of a few acres.” “Yes,” replied Mrs. Grey, “and you would gain far more by leaving the forest on our hills just as it is.” “This is my first experience of hilly country,” said Mr. Grey. “This journal says that the forest will help to prevent flooding of the flats.” “Not only that,” said Mrs. Grey, “but the forest will be a never-ending delight to the children and of great value in their education. Then, also, it is the home of the birds; and, lastly, I have always longed to live as close to the forest as we are now.” “That decides the matter,” replied Mr. Grey. “We will set aside the whole forest as a sanctuary.” When Elsa and Don heard the good news next morning they were delighted. They went with their mother on many exploring expeditions after that, and often their father joined the picnic parties at Bellbird Hollow.