^°'- ■'^'•"1 M'LicAN, Ihtsh-Bir.h of New Zealand. 7 



pitched, on their way to miro further down the face, and tliey 

 were then in splendid condition, and made a welcome addition 

 to the bill of fare. Heavy N.W. winds were frequent in this 

 high country, and then the birds were forced to leave the exposed 

 miro tops and seek shelter low down in the smaller trees, where 

 they picked the berries of the supplejack and five-finger, which 

 latter was a common shrub in the damper gullies high up on the 

 southern spurs, and fruited well in 1907. 



After the main croj) of bush fruits is exliausted in July, the 

 Pigeon usually descends in some numbers to the scrubby-bushed 

 gullies of tlie lower and more open country, where it feeds upon 

 the young but bitter shoots of the kowhai {Sophora tetraptera) ; 

 then, however, it is past its prime, and, unless obtained when it 

 first appears, is not by any means palatable. Many birds were 

 noticed, singly and in small parties, flying high due north from 

 this bush in each year, evidently making to some other feeding- 

 grounds. This was especially noticeable after the snowfall of 

 15th July, igo6 



The Pigeon is much persecuted by the Bush-Hawk, and stands 

 a poor chance of escape if caught out on the " burn " or open land 

 away from cover. With the Maori the finding of the nest was a 

 bad omen. This probably accounts for the little I could ever 

 glean from the natives with regard to the breeding habits of the 

 Pigeon. 



The nesting season varies with the supply of food, and young 

 have been noticed as late as the end of February. Although I 

 have seen a few old nests, I have only once taken the egg. This 

 was on 5th November, 1899, at Waikohu, Poverty Bay, and I 

 transcribe my notes : — " No. 2, '99. — The nest was placed about 

 18 feet up in a mahoe (white-wood, Melicytus ramiflora), and 

 placed upon a couple of branches among several young shoots. 

 It was well sheltered above by the foliage, but quite exposed from 

 below, and so loosely built that the one eg^ could be seen from 

 the ground. The bird was flushed from the nest as I rode under 

 the tree, and flew off very suddenly. The tree in which the nest 

 was placed was about the same height as the surrounding ones 

 — say, 25 feet — and grew at the bottom edge of a small ngaio and 

 mahoe bush, in open fern country. It was very loosely put 

 together, and composed of crossed |-inch twigs of mahoe for 

 a foundation, with one or two pieces of manuka tops laid 

 round the cavity. These short manuka twigs were the only ones 

 laid with any system, the ragged ends of all the others projecting 

 out from the nest. It is like a concave disc, and measures 

 9 inches across the denser part of the nest, but about 18 inches 

 if the straggling ends are averaged. The cavity is 1.5 inches 

 deep, and the nest itself about 5 inches. The one egg was in- 

 cubated for perhaps live or six days." 



There were several patches of scrubby bush alwut this open 

 country, and several pairs of Pigeons were in the locality, jiossibly 

 nesting too.. Their food, in that place, would consist (at that 



