Fulton. — Disappearance of Neiv Zealand Birds. 491 



to five broods of four each of the unfortunate canary. Where 

 thick native bush remains untouched our canaries — the yellow- 

 head and the white-head — will be with us. They are still found 

 in considerable numbers in the great pine and birch forests 

 of Hawke's Bay, Waikato, Kapiti, and the Barriers ; and in 

 the Maruia Forest, at Hokitika, and throughout the Nelson 

 District. They are not so common at Catlin's or Milford 

 as they were ten years ago, but they are found sparingly at 

 Wyndham. 



Our utick, or fern-bird, heard everywhere in swampy ground, 

 and fairly common twenty years ago, now that draining and 

 ploughing has so much enhanced the value of our low-lying 

 swampy grounds has become very rare. Near Fortification 

 Creek he can still be heard, and wherever fairly large swamps 

 remain there he is ; but the firing of swamps has almost done 

 for the fermbird. The utick can last only so long as the great 

 swamps of Canterbury, Lower Taieri, Manawatu, and Piako 

 remain undrained and uncultivated. He is still very common at 

 Stewart Island and Kapiti, where, so far, no weasels have been 

 introduced ; and he is reported from many other places, in- 

 cluding Hangaroa, Kaitaia, and Mangonui. 



Our grey warbler will hold his own through all time. His 

 merry cry can be heard in garden or bush to-day. His curious 

 nest is always well concealed. Though the victim of the shining 

 cuckoo, and losing numbers of chicks every year, the two, or 

 possibly three, clutches of eggs, each five or six in number, give 

 it an enormous " lift " over the other birds. The nest — pen- 

 sile, and absolutely weasel- and rat-proof — still further protects 

 it. It is restless, active, and vigorous on the wing, and was 

 known from time immemorial to Maori and pakeha. Let us 

 hope that centuries hence the " cry of the riroriro " will be heard 

 in the land. 



The little brown creeper, quiet and shy, never a very common 

 bird, and one difficult to see, always keeping in dense bush 

 and thicket, is hardly ever heard, save wben calling to or feeding 

 its young ones. Nesting in high trees, its little cup-shaped 

 domicile is always hard to get at ; but where the bird once 

 flourished it cannot now be easily found. No doubt they still 

 exist far back on Maungatua, but in the bush near Dunedin 

 I had not observed one for quite ten years until I saw six all 

 together in some manuka in the Newington Bush on the 4th 

 June, 1907. They are seen at Wyndham in little flocks, and 

 are often called the " grey creeper " and " the other canary " ; 

 but that the bird is hardly known to many is evidenced by the 

 name not being even mentioned by one of Mr. Drummond's 

 correspondents . 



