Private Life of an Ornithologist
June 2012
The ornithologist could not but wonder if the birds she studied were a trifle plain. If only she could delve into her sewing basket and embellish them – a stronger blue here, a few scarlet dots there, some stripes along the wings. That was better.
These embellished birds were bound to capture the public imagination, and perhaps there would be a ripple effect, or a trickle down, or something, and they
would all be saved from extinction which, let’s face it, was where most of them were headed.
And if New Zealand’s birds did all melt away into time, at least there would be these decorative renditions to remember them by…