Yesterdays in Maoriland - New Zealand in the Eighties

Whitcombe and Tombs, 1952 reprint, has award plate pasted on front endpaper

New Zealand owes a great deal to one of its almost forgotten pioneers - an Austrian taxidermist named Andreas Reischek. For 12 years, from 1877 to 1889, Reischek roamed the bush and mountains of this group of islands carefully studying their flora and fauna, particularly their unique bird life. Reischek had the happy knack of recording his adventures (in several of which he could well have lost his life) in simple, non-technical language. Whether he is describing his part in arranging exhibits in the Christchurch, Wanganui or Auckland Museums; the pursuit of a particularly rare bird among the cliffs and chasms of Little Barrier Island; or the almost incredible sagacity of his dog Caesar, the constant companion of his travels, his style is always simple and unaffected....