120 MUTTON BIRDS 



this way and was quite distracted by the wealth 

 of extra fine specimens I had drawn from the 

 other derelict nest, dry-curled and smoothed, and 

 which at intervals were allowed to float down 

 near the camera. 



In its plumage this Fern Bird is most uiiol)- 

 trusive, — browns of a darker tint marking- 

 its back and sides, and shading off into paler 

 browns beneath. The cap, or crown, of the male, 

 is of faint chocolate colour, and in this breed the 

 pencilling behind the eye, the merest thread of 

 white. 



About a month later I got a nest of the larger 

 Rakiahua breed, and in a situation unique in 

 my experience of the Fern Bird. It was placed 

 about four feet above ground, and was well 

 hidden in a manuka bush — manuka of the 

 Stewart Island type, thick and bushy to the root 

 and in habit quite unlike the more slender 

 phmt of the North Island. This thick, wind- 

 clipped shrub, one of a small cluni]), grew some 

 seven or ten chains from the Rakiahua River. 

 The owners of the nest, even for Fern Birds, were 

 unusually attentive to their duties, contending 

 — almost quarrelling indeed — for the seat of 

 honour on the eggs. AVe had arrived, in fact, 

 at a time when visitors are least welcome. These 

 eggs were in the A'ery act of being hatched, and 

 if the X)Oor little cock was over-anxious and 

 fussed, as a man and husband, knowing what 

 his feelings must have ])eeu, my fullest sympathy 

 went out to him. He was so very anxious to 

 hel]), and knew so very little how to assist his 

 wife. She, however, must have regarded this 

 anxiety as honoural)le, for even, when with a 

 caution overdone but still praiseworthy, he 



