142 . MUTTON BIRDS 



thoTiglit tliat only a New Zealand, or a Home, 

 Robin would have selected. To attain her nest 

 this Bell-bird had to fly in by the crazy broken 

 door. There, beneath the sagging roof of totara 

 bark, she sat looking into a daisy tree that grew 

 without. 



The nest from which the photographs are 

 taken, was built on the square clipped top of one 

 of those giant macrocarp hedges so common in 

 New Zealand. 



Never have I known a more devoted sitter 

 than this particular hen Bell-bird. The Fantail 

 and Fern Bird are amenable, but, for at least an 

 hour or two and often for much longer, 

 even these species vacate their nests at very near 

 approach. Never before had I known a wild 

 bird on first acquaintance to permit, without 

 flinching, the removal of the twigs, etc., that so 

 often obstruct the lens. In the case of this nest 

 sevei'al slioots had thus to be snipped off and 

 moved aside, and one of them, of quite consider- 

 able girth, projected itself within an inch of the 

 bird's bill. Very gently and tenderly was this 

 twig grasped, very cautiously the jaws of the 

 strong steel scissors bit into the yielding bark, 

 very gradually the twig bent over, till it lay 

 dissevered and leaning on one of its lateral 

 shoots; lastly with hardly the least rustle and 

 hardly the least jerk back of greenery inter- 

 twined, and slowly as a worm drags into its hole 

 a leaf, the cutting was removed by me and the 

 lens' vision cleared. During the performance of 

 this delicate operation, in the little mother's eyes 

 only, was there movement, and only life in the 

 beating heart that shook her sides. I could see 

 the feathers rise and fall stirred by its pulsation. 



