70 M'Lean, Bush-Birds of Neiv Zealand. \ 



ceptional sweetness, is loud and clear and long-sustained. As 

 a rule only heard in early morning, up to about lo a.m., the 

 song may sometimes be listened to at a later hour : and in the 

 breaks between the showers, when the sun gets through, the 

 Robin is induced to mount to the top of some taller shrub and there, 

 in the afternoon, to sound its melody. Though rarely heard in 

 winter, the clear notes of this bird were audible in the distance 

 from many parts of the valley throughout the spring. The song 

 has been recorded in my note-books : but for the present it will 

 suffice to state that the bird opens with a fairly high note — like 

 " Toit," repeated five or six times in quick succession — then 

 drops it half a note for another set of five or six, then drops 

 again, and so descends the scale. Here and there short breaks 

 occur when trills and spluttered notes are interspersed. But 

 there is little pause, and the piece, with some variation, but 

 always in this descending scale, is repeated again and again. 



In a small patch of nei-nei scrub amid the tawhera two nests 

 were taken — one with three much-incubated eggs on 27th Sep- 

 tember, and one with two fresh eggs on the following day.* This 

 is much earlier than I have noted eggs elsewhere ; and, judging 

 by the condition of the three taken on the 27th, these must have 

 been laid about the i8th of the month. These nests were very 

 handsome, for in their damp surroundings the moss had kept 

 its colour and harmonized perfectly with that about the trees ; 

 but they were similarly constructed to others observed elsewhere, 

 and had the characteristic flakes of bark and leaves dabbed about 

 them, and also that lining of bleached grass-blades which has 

 always been present in all I have examined. The photograph 

 (Plate VII.) is of a nest in a creeper on a dying manuka bush, 

 taken at Waikohu on 8th November, 1898. The three incubated 

 eggs were similar in colour and markings to those found elsewhere, 

 but were slightly larger. They weighed, unblown, 105 grains — 

 an average of 35. The two fresh eggs, however, were consider- 

 ably larger than typical eggs, weighed 39 grains each, and were 

 more heavily marked than any I had previously seen. Except 

 in the ground colour, which is creamy, the eggs of Miro australis 

 resemble those of the Yellow-breasted Shrike- Robin {Eopsaliria 

 austyalis) of Australia. As to the finding of the nest in Maunga- 

 Haumia, I transcribe part of my notes : — " 27th September, 1906. 

 — As I left the track skirting a chain above the tributary of the 

 Manga-maia, I entered open tawhera scrub (typical of this 

 part of the bush), and, after going about 15 chains, crossed the 

 small creek on my right to the face the men were at work 

 upon. Here the scrub changed to a very stunted tawhera about 

 15 feet high, the old trees knotted and gnarled in their struggle 

 on this poor soil, and with short branches 6 to 8 inches in di- 

 ameter. Here and there were rotting stumps, and all were heavily 

 festooned with dark green moss. One to two-inch tawhera 



* This, as written, corrects a transposition of dates which occurs in the 

 Jticle in The Ibis, 1907, p. 528.— J. C. M'L. 



