Percy Seymour

BIRD COLLECTOR: 

S. Percy SEYMOUR (1888) 

Seymour had hopes of collecting rare birds for an English buyer. At this time, skins of rare New Zealand birds were sought after by European museums. By August 1888, Seymour had moved to Preservation Inlet, where he worked as a Prospector, Bird Collector, and School Teacher for 25 years. 

He wrote to Professor Parker on 30th March 1888: 

"Professor Parker Dear Sir, 

Your very kind letter reached me by the Tarawera. I very much regret that I was unable to see Professor Haswell and thank for his kindness in taking charge of the letter and Mr. Gunn’s parcel. I am, however, writing to thank him. 

Since reading your letter I have again carefully considered by position, and I really cannot see that I should act wisely in returning to Dunedin at the present time. In the first place, I really have not given these Sounds anything like a fair trial, my time having been almost entirely occupied in preliminary work or in struggling against initial difficulties, most of which are due to my not knowing what I should have to encounter and therefore not being able to make provision for meeting them. 

I reckon that there are probably about sixty landing places in these four sounds, all accessible with care, be means of my little boat. This estimate has been arrived at by a study of the chart, and by experience I have already had, of landing where no place is marked in the chart. Out of this large number of places, I have visited only three, and these are, I know not the best, but more likely among the worst. There is one particularly good spot, near the entrance of Thompson Sound, and right opposite this on Secretary Island is one of the three localities in which the Nortornis has been obtained. I spent a considerable sum of money on my outfit, besides the expenditure of time and trouble and I do not like to withdraw when perhaps just on the point of success. I want, before I leave here, to thoroughly explore the four sounds that meet at this point, making camps at every two or three miles, and testing its capacities thoroughly. Then if I find that it will not pay I shall be in no worse position for retiring than I am at present, but probably better. My expenses here are exceeding small. Food, clothing and materials and tools, will not at the outside , cost more than 10/- a week. Then, again, I have very little hope of getting a decent billet, if I do return. My work at the Normal School consisted in teaching the Seventh Standard, which is not examined for results. I could therefore get no result report and had no hope of promotion. My salary with bonus, amounted at the best times to not more that 180 pounds a year and I could not look forward with complacency to growing gray in the Board’s service at such a munificent remuneration. For several years I persistently applied for every billet that was advertised, but always without success. School Boards and Committees do not care a pint about the applicant’s literary qualifications. They look at his result-reports and recommend accordingly. If I 

met with such constant want of success then, what chance would there be now, when retrenchment is the order of the day! My only chance would be to put myself on a level with a student just leaving the Normal School (a member of my class a year or so previously) and taking a miserable little country school and working myself up again "de novo" by a persistent course of the most abominable pass-grinding. Such a life would be a constant misery. I would rather take a dose of Kou, and would certainly infinitely rather be here. Indeed, with all my little troubles, I prefer this life to teaching. 

With the exception of the first few weeks, I have always extracted a certain amount of pleasure from it. I am getting much stronger and acquiring a considerable share of physical vigour which makes me to a certain extent insensible to physical discomforts, and keeps me in good spirits. I do not mind the solitude in the least. I do not remember feeling lonesome for a single day since I came. My dogs too are capital company. I have always some work on hand, or some plan to think out, to keep my thoughts occupied. I have now nearly completed a large hut and hope soon to be able to occupy it which will largely diminish the discomforts due to the disgusting climate. Indeed, as far as I am concerned, I should be quite content to live here and die here, only making enough to keep me going. For the sake of my mother and sisters however, I should be glad if I could make it pay, and for this I believe I could do, especially if I had a sailing boat so that I could travel when the wind blows. There is a good deal of preliminary work to do, in making the camps, which however would be unnecessary with such a boat as I have mentioned. I must just be content to work on for the present, till I can send a good stock to England. My agent there, Mr. Marsden of Gloucester, seems to have a very large connection and do a good business in foreign skins and he thinks a good deal may be done in New Zealand specimens. Before the market can be over- stocked there must be skins sold which would put me in a better position for leaving here if I found myself compelled to do so eventually. With regard to danger – there is of course a certain amount or risk, but then there is risk everywhere. It is only a question of degree. Experience teaches how to avoid it to some extent and I do not think it is worthwhile to trouble about it. The only thing to do is to take reasonable precaution and go ahead and not mind it. I find that the winter season is not the worst for weather or for travelling. The last three months have been the worst since I came. 

There is another hut somewhere about here if I can only find it. Someone has been on this, and Secretary Islands, and stripped a lot of bark some years ago. I am inclined to think it must be in Bradshaw Sound, and that is the only one that has not been visited since I came here. I am going to tackle that first when I recommence collecting. It is the most sheltered and apparently the safest of all, and there seems to be a large swamp marked on the chart in one place and an extensive patch of sand or shingle partially or entirely covered by high tides in another. This seems to promise a variety of species of birds. I have collected no small birds at all yet, as I wanted to practice on the larger and looser feathered birds first. I could have got Turnagra crassirostris! (1) Glaucopis cinerea, (2) and one of the Wrens, species. I 

have not seen a Kiwi (A.oweni ) (3) since I came, but I know of one or two localities where A. Australis (4) can be obtained. In fact I have seen these at each of my camps. I think Mr Gunn mentioned I had a good chance of getting Penguin Embryos (E. pachyrhnchus) (5) and that if you would send the necessary materials and instructions I should be glad to secure for you the first that I found. If my memory serves me correctly he told me that these materials were already packed to send. If not this trip, please be sure to send them next time or they will be too late as the penguin breed in August. I found a fragment of one egg of this species on this island the other day, and the site of my out-camp on Secretary Island, and also another locality near here are both favorite resorts of both this species and E.minor (6). Of course I cannot be sure of getting them but I will try. There are large "rookeries" of them between this and the mouth of Doubtful Sound, but I do not care to go poking about the rocks there till I get a larger boat, as the places for landing are very few and the wind sweeps in there very strongly. I feel pretty sure of being able to net or harpoon specimens of Tursio metis. There is, I think, a skeleton of this porpoise in the museum, one of two specimens obtained in 1875 in the Dusky Sound by Capt. Fairchild and described by Professor Hutton. I do not know what became of the other specimen but I should not think that it was sent to England, so there ought to be a demand for skins or skeletons for the British and other European and American museums. I do not think any other specimens have ever been founded on portions of the skeleton. I noticed a curious fact about the young of E. pachyrhynchus. The dogs have got one specimen with the down still adhering to the feathers. The down on the back, head and throat was dark grayish brown and other the under parts white. 

The feathers under the down were blue-black on the head and back but white on the throat, which is black in the adult. Unless this was accidental, which seems unlikely, the throat is first brown, then white, then black. This may throw some light on the question whether the large brown albatross is really the young of D. exulans (7) as the difficulty lies in supposing that the young could be first white then brown, and finally grow whiter with age. Capt. Hutton told me that he had always doubted whether that could be the young of exulans since he had seen the nestling collected by Dr. Filhol. I did not pressure the young of penguin, as the dogs had torn out most of the down, and the rest was so filthy with mud and excrement that I did not think it worth while, as I expect to get plenty in the future. I am afraid however, that I am tiring your patience. I did not intend to write at such lengths, but I wanted to show that there is at least something to be said in favour of my not leaving here till I have given the Sound a fair trial. 

I remain 

Dear Sir 

Yours faithfully 

S. Percy Seymour (Seymour 1888) 

Birds listed: 

1 South Island Piopio 

2 South Island Kokako 

3 Little Spotted Kiwi 

4 South Island Brown Kiwi 

5 Fiordland Crested Penguin 

6 Southern Blue Penguin 

7 Wandering Albatross. 

FIORDLAND CRESTED PENGUIN 

Seymour, S Percy. "Letter to Professor Parker, 30 March 1888, (Otago Museum)