li^6 Fro7n all Sources. 



prevailing colour is^ a vei'^' dark bronze-green, shading into blue. These 

 colours are noticeable on tlie back and the upper parts of the wings and 

 tail. The head and the back of the neck are grey, and this colour is very 

 sharply defined from the dark green, there being a noticeable line of de- 

 marcation. The grey neck and green back harmonise with a light red 

 colour, best described as vinous, which extends from tin: front of the neck 

 to the breast. The sides of the body are grey, and tlie under parts of the 

 wings are dark grey, while the under tail coverts afford a striking contrast 

 to all the otlier fealhers by being a bright chestnut. The legs are feather- 

 ed close down to the feet with grey feathers, tinged witii vinous, and 

 are bright red." — From the xX'e^r Zealand Herald per Y. Howe. 

 THE FEliN BIRD, By J. Hkummond, F.L.8., FZ.S. 

 ]\Ir. W. VV. Smith, of New Plymouth, has kindly sent me the nest of a 

 Fern-bird which was found by Mr. Hicks, junr., at Tikorangi, Taranaki, on 

 October 2U. it has a special value to those who are interested in native birds, 

 because the Fern-bird's nest is not easily found. Mr Walter BuUer, in all the 

 years he spent in the open, found only one of these nests. 'J'he discovery was 

 made many years before he wrote his large work. The nest was on the edge of 

 a raupo-swamp, near the old mission station, on the Wairoa River, Hawke's 

 Bay. Mr. 'J\ H. Potts found several of this bird's nests in Canterbury, and 

 Mr, H. Guthrie-Smith and" Mr. J. (J. McLean have found five, at Tutira, 

 Hawke's Bay, the former being fortunate enough to obtain two in one day. 

 The nest Mr. Smitli has sent me is a strange little home, loosely built, so 

 light that it weighs only three-quarters of an ounce, and so fragile that it 

 almost crumbles to pieces when it is lifted by the hand. It is cup-shaped, 

 stands four inches and a half high, and measures four inches in diameter from 

 one outer wall to the other. Tlie walls and the bottom part are composed 

 of grass-bents and dried leaves of the " cutty-grass," with feathers of the 

 Kiwi, the Weka, and Tui intermixed. The interior is neat, compact and 

 comfortable. It is two inches deep and two inches in diameter, and is thickly 

 lined with the feathers of the birds named. Some of the feathers, near the 

 top, evidently, have been placed in position in order that they may droop in- 

 wards and, to some extent, cover the eggs or the young. Mr. Smith tells me 

 that the nest was placed in a compact plant of native rush, the Maoris' Wiwi 

 ( Scirijus )iud(»ius). interwoven with Koropiu {Lontaria capeiixis^, and a fine 

 grass called Patiti (Micivlaua stipoiden). The nest contained three eggs, 

 ovoidoconical, measuring ().8in, with a white ground, speckled with violet and 

 greyish-red more at the tliick end than ;it the pointed end. 



Mr. Guthrie-Smith, in his "Birds of the Water, Wood, and Waste" 

 states that the Fern-bird's nest is planted deep, buried in fact— a foot or (if- 

 teen inches in the heart of a bunch of " cutty grass." Usually a clump is 

 selected growing in a soft, wet spot, the Fern-bird, like the Pukeko, relying 

 on these extra safeguards to fend off vermin and trampling stock. The nests, 

 he savs, can be discovered most easily on hoiseb.ick, on account of the extra 

 view obtained, and by continuous riding tinougli the swamps, specimens of 

 the birds are sure to be put up. If the l>ird. wiieii flushed, flies off horizon- 

 tally, probably it has been merely disturbed at feeding or resting or gather- 

 in" nest materials. But if it pops straight up out of the centre of the clump 



