212 Transactions. 



vicinity is speedily driven far afield ; and, though, the young soon leave 

 the nest, both parents watch over them and feed them until they are as 

 big as themselves — in fact, I believe the family keep together for nearly a 

 full year." Mr. Traill also states that a gull kept in a garden for the pur- 

 pose of keeping down slugs turned its attention to a vegetable diet, and 

 disposed of its owner's tomatoes as fast as they came to maturity. Though 

 having kept sheep for years, he has never known the gull to do any damage. 

 He has, however, caught the weka in the act of picking oiit the eyes of a 

 living sheep. Probably the ordinary food of the gull is so plentiful on the 

 island that the sheep is unmolested. 



Though often rearing its young near the seashore, the black-backed gull 

 .sometimes nests far inland. Mr. F. S. Oliver states that he found several 

 nests containing half-fledged young birds on a mountain-side near Mace- 

 town, Wakatipu, at an elevation of over 5,000 ft. above sea-level. Mr. A. 

 Tapper gives an instance of a river location being chosen as a breeding- 

 ground. He writes, " On the Waiau, both above and below Clifden, there 

 used to be two large colonies, which I have frequently visited during the 

 nesting season. The island at the mouth of the Lillburn was approxi- 

 mately two acres in extent, and would have from a hundred to a hundred 

 and fifty nests on it. Two eggs would be the average number, often one, 

 sometimes three, seldom four. Of course, the nests with only one may not 

 have had their full complement. The nests were raised on a kind of mound 

 consisting of sand and white tussock, and I noticed that some were double 

 the height of the others. Now, the question is whether the higher mounds 

 were older nests that had been added to year after year, and the others of 

 a : later date — perhaps younger birds. It looked to me as if the old birds, 

 with a little renovation — top-dressing, as it were — used the same nests year 

 after year, as there were practically no old unused nests, as far as I can 

 remember." 



Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus). 



This bird is still to be found on Lake Hauroko and other retired waters 

 to the westward. 



Little Grebe (Podiceps rufipectus). 



Mr. Jules Tapper reports the little grebe as not uncommon on Lake 

 Hauroko, and it probably frequents all the lakes and lagoons between Hau- 

 roko and the west coast. 



Southern Kiwi (Apteryx australis). 



Writing under date of the 17th September, 1911, Mr. E. Stocker says, 

 " The big kiwi is still to be found there [the back country of Stewart Island] 

 in plenty. A shy bird, and only coming out at night from its hiding-place 

 in dark clumps of scrub or hollow trees, it is somewhat difficult of observa- 

 tion ; but if one waits for a moonlight night and follows up the weird raspy 

 note, usually to the edge of some stream or bog, there the bird may be 

 seen driving his long bill into the soft ooze in search of insects which live 

 below the surface, and which with worms, form its diet." 



