86 MUTTON BIRDS 



lichen, moss, liverwort, dark green com- 

 panies of Prince of Wales' Feather fern, lighter 

 green Hen-and-Chicken fern, shining polypod, 

 and lomaria, the last named, day after day, 

 during October, harbouring in their shuttlecock 

 crowns, white nests of hailstone drift; 

 twenty feet above are the massed growths of 

 coprosma and other shrubs ; highest of all, spread 

 the green tops of kamahi, ironwood, and rimu. 

 In some degree, too, each of these green stages 

 supports its own particular birds, thus the 

 Kiwi and Weka haunt the mosses and ferns ; the 

 Crow, the Fantail, the Warbler, the Tit, the 

 Bush Creeper are usually to be found on or 

 about the middle floor; whilst the Kaka, the 

 Pigeon, and most markedly the Parrakeet, love 

 the chief seats in the synagogue. 



Four Kiwi burrows were obtained during 

 our perambulations of the forest, one con- 

 taining a parent and chick, one, a sitting 

 bird and egg, another burrow had just 

 been vacated, and in the debris, howked 

 out by the inquisitive Weka, were mingled many 

 scraps of pale green egg-shell. Another was 

 a mere hole worked into the hill-side. Finally, 

 there were two "beginnings," as at school we 

 used to term structures begun and left. Besides 

 these breeding burrows we found also a C(niple of 

 Kiwi lodges. The entrances of all of the bur- 

 rows and of each of the lodges, faced the north 

 or the west, and thus opened to the warmth. The 

 burrows seemed to l^e mere temporary conven- 

 iences, although, I believe, probably re-occupied 

 when required. The lodges were of a very dif- 

 ferent character and appeared l)y their length of 

 tunnelling, and interior ramifications, and by 



