BuLLER. — On the Ornithology of New Zealand. 17 



Xenicus longipes, Gmelin. (Bush-wren.) 



At Milford Sound I met with Xenicus lo7igipes — a single 

 one, which I managed to secure with a charge of dust-shot. 

 The bird has a rapid, furtive way of moving about, keeping, 

 as a rule, near the ground, and hunting for its food among the 

 mosses and fungi covering the roots of the trees. When 1 first 

 saw it, and excited its attention by an imitation of its feeble 

 cry, it hopped about on a branch quite close to me, and 

 several times opened its mouth, after the manner of a young 

 bird, but without making any sound. It was very active, not 

 remaining for one moment in the same position. It soon 

 became indifferent to my simulated call, retired to some dis- 

 tance, then descended to the ground and hopped about, 

 apparently looking for food, and moving so swiftly that I 

 found it very difficult to get a shot. The specimen proved to 

 be a young bird, but it has exactly the same colours as the 

 adult, although somewhat duller. In this respect it differs 

 from the allied genus, Acanthidositta. 



Mr. Brough, to whom I was indebted for some beautiful 

 specimens of the Bush-wren some years ago, writes giving 

 me an account of a subsequent visit to the locality whence he 

 ■obtained these birds — the low woods under the Tasman Eange. 

 He says: " When I went back this year I pushed on to a spot 

 a few miles further on than where I camped before. I am 

 sorry to say that the Bush-wren and the Wood-robin had 

 almost entirely disappeared. I am certain I did not see more 

 than a dozen during the several months I was out. The heavy 

 falls of snow last winter may have been the means of killing 

 off a number of these birds, or the wet summer may have 

 induced them to migi-ate to some drier woods at a lower alti- 

 tude ; but, whatever the cause maybe, they are gone. Whilst 

 I was there we had an immense and continuous fall of rain, 

 and the bush was never dry. We had twenty-six wet days in 

 January, and during the whole time of my stay it was mostly 

 wet, with very little sunshine. The Wood-robin, which was 

 formerly so plentiful there, has almost entirely gone. This is 

 a great pity, because there is no bird more respected by the 

 backwoodsman than this one. There is nothing else to re- 

 lieve the monotony of these gloomy red-birch forests. Their 

 raillery, if I may so term their string of noisy notes, brings 

 the explorer suddenly up when he is rambling alone in these 

 mountain solitudes, and produces a feeling of companionship. 

 The absence of this sprightly bird was, I may say, the saddest 

 feature of my four months in the wet and lifeless forest." 



Eudynamis taitensis, Sparrm. (Long-tailed Cuckoo.) 



On the 8th June I received from Mr. H. H. Travers a note 

 saying that he had just obtained from New Plymouth, in the 

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