Gutheie-Smith. — 0)1 Bird-life on a Run. 373 



hedge — the colours of the bird, the bright scarlet berries, and 

 the deep verdure of the leaves forming a pleasing picture. 

 Ordinarily these birds have a joyous twitter. In early dawn, 

 however, when waiting for the sheep to appear and amusing 

 myself by birdnesting, I have heard them uttering what I can 

 only term a w'hisper-song. The notes are so very low that 

 they could not be heard further than a few feet. 



In the many small raupo-bcds around the lake the little 

 fern-bird may be heard rustling. " Fern-bird " is rather a mis- 

 nomer nowadays, for, whatever the habit of the utick may 

 have been, I have never yet, though riding over hundreds of 

 miles of fern -country in the course of the year, observed the 

 bird in this kind of herbage. Ordinarily this species is very 

 shy ; but in spring the male loses to some extent his timidity. 

 He will then, regardless of the presence of man, mount to the 

 very top of a flax-stick, climbing up in little runs, like a mouse 

 or a house-fly. His tail is all the while bent in towards the 

 stem. Indeed, like a young bird swung in the air, the utick 

 seems to use his tail for balancing. 



iVmong other small birds we have the grey warbler, whose 

 delicate pensile dome-nest is built of moss, then thistledown, 

 and lastly feathers. The pied tit also is to be found on the 

 run : it is one of our rarest birds. The pied fantail, on the 

 other hand, is one of our commonest species, and adds another 

 charm to our native woods. He does not like the wind, but in 

 the forest-paths, when the chequered light or shade hardly 

 moves on the nibbled grass, he unceasingly flutters and flits. 

 Along the bubbled brooks he dances above the drooping koro- 

 miko and tutu. This fairy of our bush is, however, a hardy 

 little creature. Often I have seen him hunting for flies in 

 pelting rain, when the boles of the great pines were water- 

 pipes, and from the patter and splash of the big drops a gritty 

 mist arose from the soaked earth. He never remains for any 

 length of time in the air, after a short flight or hover alighting 

 for an instant and then darting off once more. I am inclined, 

 after a good deal of observation, to think that, at any rate on 

 some occasions, he deliberately furthers his work of securing 

 food by perching on outlying boughs and thereby shaking out 

 the minute insects. 



Another of our native birds is the pihoihoi, or ground- 

 lark. 



Once or twice I have noticed parrakeets, bat at too great a 

 distance to be sure of the variety. We have the brown parrot 

 too. On some gaunt and ghostly forest monarch, standing 

 barked and battered above the fallen bush, the kaka may be 

 heard harshly denouncing the spoilers of his sylvan home. 

 Besides the felling of timber and subsequent bush-fires, the 

 English bees are also affecting the chances of the kaka in the 



