lOoG NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



" The New Zealand bird, as might be expected by its more recent 

 contact with civilised man, is far less shy than the European one, and 

 easily discriminates between persons who may be dangerous and those 

 who are not. Tlie children of my manager frequently visit the nests 

 diuing the progress of incubation, and as they have never injiu'ed the 

 nests or eggs, or intei-fercd mischievously with the birds themselves, 

 they are allowed to approach quite close without the latter thinking it 

 necessary to quit the nest. When they do so, they glide into the water 

 with a quick but stealthy motion, diving at once, and rising at a con- 

 siderable distance from the nest. 



" Tlie eggs do not appear to suffer from immersion in the water, 

 even for a considerable time, for on one occasion three eggs, which by 

 some means had been thrown out of the nest, and had sunk below to 

 a depth of several feet, and which must have been immersed in the 

 water for twenty-four hours at least, were replaced by one of the 

 childi'cn, and the bird having sat upon them, two out of the three 

 prodviccd chicks. When the water of the lake is rising, in consequence 

 of heavy rain, the birds are seen busily engaged in procuring material 

 and building up the ne.st, so as to raise the eggs above the reach of the 

 flood. Tlie added material is afterwards spread out after the water 

 subsides ; but on some rare occasions the rise of the lake has been so 

 great and so rapid that the birds have been imable to meet it, and the 

 eggs have become addled. In such cases no chicks have been produced 

 that season. 



" The young birds are of a greyish-green colour, striped with black 

 (dark-brown), and, particularly when of small sizes, are not easily 

 detected whilst floating on the water. They take to the water imme- 

 diately after being excluded from the shell, and both parents exhibit 

 the gi-eatost solicitude in tending and feeding them. When fatigued, 

 they are canied on the back of the old birds, taking their station 

 immediately behind the insertion of the wings, for which ijurposc the 

 parent bird immerses itself deeper than usual in the water." 



Both male and female aid in the construction of the nest. Usual 

 breeding months, November to December. Amongst my notes there is 

 a record of a nest of the Tippet Grebe having been observed during the 

 season of 1887 on Lake Boort, Victoria, which contained ten eggs — 

 possibly the combined clutches of two females. 



