490 Transactions. 



Wairarapa, to be " increasing in numbers " at Ellston, Waerenga. 

 the Bay of Islands, and the south-east coast of the North Island ; 

 but, save very rarely, he is not now seen with us. Easily sup- 

 plied with necessary food, prolific, laying four or five eggs 

 twice in the season, its nest well protected from rats and weasels, 

 it is astonishing that it is not more numerous ; but it is probable 

 that it will survive the storm, and, though not strictly an in- 

 digenous bird, be one of the last of our feathered inhabitants. 



Among our creepers, the three wrens — bush, rock, and rifle- 

 man — timid, but active and quiet ; attending strictly to their 

 own business ; running up tree - boles ; catching small insects 

 in the bark of the pine or birch ; placing their eggs in the deepest 

 recesses of the broadleaf or pine tree ; careful to choose the 

 tiniest hole that they can safely emerge from ; always certain 

 that they are protected from animal or bird — there is little or no 

 fear that our wrens will become extinct. The advance of civili- 

 sation has little effect on them, save by destroying their forest 

 homes. Where sound bush remains, there the wrens will per- 

 petuate their species. They seldom or never build in rotten 

 trees, like the kingfisher or parakeet ; their nests are generally 

 very high up, and the trees sound and growing. Feeling in- 

 stinctively their tiny size and helplessness, they choose the most 

 impenetrable fortresses they can find. All up the West Coast 

 the rock wren flourishes, deep in tiny recesses of the rocks ; and 

 the rifleman and bush wrens abound wherever are our native 

 trees. It is pleasant to learn from Mr. Drummond's Bulletin 

 that the wren is reported as existing in all parts of the country ; 

 it is said even to swarm in the Maruia Forest and on Kapiti 

 Island ; and in December of this year I saw over a dozen rifle- 

 men in the ribbonwood-trees near Waimate. 



The native canary, once common at the Taieri and round 

 Duncdin, has now absolutely disappeared from these parts. It 

 is quite scarce at Catlin's, where the bush is almost untouched; 

 and at Milford Sound it can occasionally be seen, but not in great 

 flocks, as of yore. It is still common at Stewart Island : and 

 in the Urewera Country its near relative, the white-head, can be 

 often seen. Its nesting habits and its bright-yellow colour and 

 attractive appearance have had. I am afraid, much to do with 

 its extinction. It lavs its beautiful red eggs in hollow broad- 

 leaf branches or stumps, in places easy of access to weasel, rat, 

 hi- mouse. Its home is becoming scarcer and scarcer, as the 

 broadleaf-tree is one of the first to disappear. In addition to 

 this, it has the misfortune to be one, if not the chief, host 

 of the long-tailed cuckoo in this island, as is the white-head in 

 the North. This means that every cuckoo that lavs, say, five 

 eggs in one season may be the means of destroying from three 



