224 M'Leas, Bush-Birds of New Zealand. [.sfAprii 



practically omnivorous. Fruit, honey, insect life, and vegetable 

 garbage are greedily devoured, and it is inordinately fond of fat 

 — butter especially. They have been seen upon the sheepskins 

 at the gallows, and even in the pig-trough ! Here, in the bush, 

 they were not well spoken of by the men, for, once a flock has taken 

 up its quarters near a camp, it is hardly safe to leave eatables 

 uncovered during the absence of the owTiers. The birds flock into 

 the galley and help themselves to any butter or fat they find. 

 They have been known, at my first camp, to clear all the fat. 

 inside and out, from a cooked leg of mutton ; and at a camp in 1907 

 they picked the plums from the outside of the Sunday pudding. 

 On 3rd October, 1906, I revisited my second camp, where I 

 intended spending the night in a tent left pitched for the purpose. 

 The few eatables brought over were deposited on a stump while 

 I opened up the tent. My back was hardly turned when two 

 Blight-Birds settled on the piece of paper with the butter 

 I had just deposited. They behaved like a flock of Sparrows on 

 and about our meat-block after a sheep had been cut up. There 

 they were so busy with the particles of fat, and so intent, that the 

 cat landed in their midst before one flew. Each camp had its 

 cat as a protection against rats and mice, and the Blight-Birds, 

 as they hustled about the scraps, fell victims every day. They 

 were the only birds I saw so captured during my stay. 



Naturally, its impatient, plaintive call was frequent near the 

 tents, but was not often audible in the bush itself. In the 

 breeding season, however, there may be heard, for many minutes 

 at a time, a pleasant little warbled trill, which the Blight-Bird 

 repeats, at short intervals, from some smaller tree in the vicinity. 



Though the nest remains attached to its twigs for a season 

 after the young are gone, I never saw^ an old one in this bush ; 

 but, while the bush birds were still in flocks in October, their 

 friends were busy nesting in the lower country in 1906. It has 

 been noticed that in some years the pensile nest of this bird, 

 usually containing three eggs, but sometimes four, is to be found 

 in fair numbers about the manuka scrub (a species of tea-tree) 

 and creepers in the lower countr\', while in another season hardly 

 a Blight-Bird will be seen about that particular part in which 

 they had previously nested. This bird, so common in our scrub 

 and gardens, merits more than passing notice. It is considered 

 a colonist from Australia, and it will be interesting to note its 

 ultimate behaviour here as compared with its habits in its native 

 land. (For illustn tion of nest see Plate XXIII.) 



Acanthidositta chloris— Rifleman. 



Buller, " Birds of New Zealand " (2nd edition), vol. i., p. 113. 



The Rifleman, our smaUest bird — ^measuring only 3 inches in 

 length — inhabits the higher bush country of both islands. Here, 

 both on the North and on the South, it was fairlv plentiful in the 

 tawa and mixed bush, but was never met with in the open tawhera. 

 In the white-wood gullies and denser parts of the birch it was 



