Vol. XI 

 1912 



"1 M'Lhan, Bush-Birds of Neiv Zealand. 23 1 



and, with leaves, they rather nibbled than plucked them. They 

 assumed extravagant attitudes while examining with sharp eyes 

 the nooks and crevices about the mossy forks of a many-limbed 

 white -wood ; and their long legs enabled them to execute many 

 gymnastic feats, one of the best being that when a bird, on an 

 outgrowing branch, dropped backwards till it hung underneath, 

 and then gradually drew itself up sufficiently to peer at me over 

 the top side of the branch — head above and tail and legs below — 

 like a performer on the horizontal bar. By means of these long 

 legs they actually swing themselves from branch to branch at 

 times, and very rarely use their wings as a means of locomotion. 

 In moving through the bush they simply run — using the wings 

 to balance — in great bounding hops through the interlacing 

 branches, and in this way can move at a greater pace above than 

 one can walk below. 



It is doubtful if the Crow is able to make any sustained flight, 

 and on the only occasion that I have seen an attempt made, 

 when a party dropped across a creek — a distance of about 

 40 yards — to the opposite face, the wings were hardly moved, 

 and the tips of the primaries were much separated, so they floated 

 rather than flew. Once, on the southern side, I came upon a 

 flock of Whiteheads whose scolding appeared to alarm some Crows 

 who, until then, had been invisible in the undergrowth. Off the 

 latter went in great strides through the smaller trees, causing the 

 vines and slender branches to shake considerably ; but I caught 

 them up a little further on, where I found them busy picking 

 the reddish berries from the grape -like clusters of the supplejack 

 — a vine that climbed about the trees and formed great masses 

 in the branches there. Little of their mode of progression on the 

 ground was seen, for on the few occasions they were noticed 

 there their stay was short. One day four were observed on 

 the track moving slowly along, independent of each other, 

 examining the ground and the ferns ; but my approach sent them 

 up. They hopped into the branches of a hinau, and started feeding 

 upon the fruit. It is evident that their food, in winter at least, 

 consists to some extent of leaves, for in the scrub below the slip 

 hardly a berry existed, and the pairs that wintered there were, 

 whenever seen by the writer, busy eating the foliage of the puka 

 and of one of the smaller coprosmas (C. lucida ?). The latter 

 plant had here and there an odd berry, but they were few and far 

 between, and it was upon the leaves alone that I saw them feed. 

 They may have obtained a few wetas {Deinacrida megacephala) — 

 a repulsive insect, whose tunnels were numerous in the branches 

 of the wineberry and white-wood, and which, though nocturnal, 

 were occasionally seen out on dull, damp days. One damp morning 

 I watched one for some considerable time at a distance of a few 

 feet as it fed upon the leaves of the puka — a large, thick-leaved 

 plant which grew plentifully about this stony face, and varied 

 from saplings a few inches high to solid trees. The bird appeared 

 in good plumage, but the wattles were not conspicuous, and its 



