68 M'Lean, Bush-Birds of New Zealand. [zndXt 



the towns, where it does much good. But it is especially plenti- 

 ful in this district amid the kowhai {Sop hoy a tetraptera) flats and 

 faces of our creek and river valleys There parties of the dis- 

 playing males may be viewed in spring ; and there, too, in summer 

 and early autumn, the Cuckoo feeds upon the larvae of the kowhai 

 moth, and becomes very fat ere leaving for its winter home.* 

 Miro australis — North Island Robin. 



Buller, " Birds of New Zealand " (2nd edition), vol. i,, p. ^^. 



It was a pleasant surprise when, in April, 1906, my acquaintance 

 with the Robin was renewed. For some years, in gradually 

 lessening numbers, it had been watched in another part of this 

 district, which had been considered its last retreat in the Island ; 

 and when it came to meet me, as it were, in the midst of this 

 virgin bush, and sang its cheerful song, many recollections came 

 to mind. A walk or two in the tawhera country soon made it 

 clear that the bird was, comparatively with its localization, 

 present in fair numbers. To be more definite, there were at 

 least twelve pairs that, inside an area of perhaps 400 acres, were 

 known of, and each of these pairs could generally be found at 

 anv time about its own domain. Then, in the country further 

 up the valley, contiguous to but outside this year's felling, there 

 dwelt quite as many more. Judging by the extent of tawhera 

 and lighter timber in this outside country; which was only par- 

 tially examined, it is more than probable that it was tenanted 

 by considerably more pairs than my estimate of the number. 

 It had been the writer's impression that the Robin did not 

 frequent the higher, heavy bush, but rather the open- bot- 

 tomed lower country and flats of manuka and other trees near 

 creeks and streams. So the surprise consisted rather in the 

 finding of this large sheltered valley of poorer soil amid the ridges 

 of Maunga-Haumia, clothed, as it was, in smaller trees of manuka, 

 tawhera, and nei-nei, and intersected by numerous creeks — ideal 

 Robin country in the midst of heavy bush. But this class of 

 country is very local, and, from inquiries made from surveyors 

 and others, it is thought there is no more of it in this particular 

 area. Although there were so many of this species in this open- 

 bottomed scrub, none was seen outside its confines, either in the 

 tawa country of the slopes or in the birch of the ridges ; so that, 

 with its destruction, the Robin, too, has gone. But little grew 

 below the 6-inch tawhera and manuka, which reached in long 

 poles to 30 or 40 feet in height. It was easy travelling here ; 

 in fact, had it not been for an odd creek-bank, and that the trees 

 grew just a shade too close together, one could have ridden over 

 the greater part of the Robin's home. Where the soil was very 

 poor the 6-foot grass-tree grew in belts of denser scrub, affording 

 a secure nesting-place and shelter from the storm. This grass- 

 tree — nei-nei of the Maoris — is one of the smaller varieties of 



* Cuckoos shot off the kowhai in January and February had their crops 

 crammed with these caterpillars, and were too fat to make good skins. 



