NOTORNIS EXPEDITION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 553, 27 January 1950, Page 14

NOTORNIS EXPEDITION

(Vational Film Unit) ;ASILY the most interesting — and entertaining — piece of film I saw last week was Notornis Expedition, a ten-minute reel shot recently by D. L. Oakley, a National Film Unit cameraman, in the Takahe Valley, west of Te Anau. As a brief black-and-white record of these birds in their natural habitat, I doubt if this film could be improved upon, and it is not difficult to foresee a keen and continuing demand for prints from scientific and educational bodies in this country and overseas. One or two good panoramic shots at the opening of the reel underline the inacessibility of the sanctuary (almost as effectively isolated as Conan Doyle’s Lost, World), and there are plenty of long-shots and close-ups of the birds themselves. One particularly careful piece of photography shows a hen bird, first sitting on the nest, then strutting characteristically through the snowgrass tussocks, and finally returning to the nest again. Her two eggs are photographed, other birds are seen sauntering or hurrying about the little valley, and there is an amusing glimpse of one splashing and flapping his way across a small brook. For good measure the film also shows the lime- stone scarp under which traces of an ancient Maori hunters’ camp were discovered, and the relics-among them a epair of flax sandals-uncovered there, Yet while I was conscious of the uniqueness of the film, and impressed by its technical quality,.the general impression it left with me was of something a good deal warmer than that. It should, I think, have been subtitled "The Happy Scientist," for in a long time I have: not seen anyone look so pleased with life as Dr. Falla. All that seemed lacking were a sod hut, nine bean rows and a hive for the honey bee. OM CRA OR PT A ee ee