WOOD AND WASTE 61 



tions. Sometimes a pair will breed very 

 near the homestead, but it is exceptional, 

 and nearly all these semi-domesticated 

 woodhens draw off about end of July to 

 their wilds. 



Then, also, the birds on the run begin 

 to leave the flats where, during winter, an 

 easier food supply has been obtainable, 

 and to think of building about the heads 

 of gullies and glades and open valleys. 



About April we begin to see them again 

 in the garden and orchard, and the 

 approach of spring is once more the signal 

 of retreat to higher ground and denser 

 covert. 



Wekas breed very earl}^ — or very late — 

 it is hard to say which, when the birds 

 are sitting in mid-June. One such nest 

 was built near a bushman's camp and not 

 long after the pitching of the tent a Weka 

 appeared. 



The premises having been reconnoitred 

 and the scraps of potato and cold meat 

 thrown out having been sampled, the bird 

 disappeared for three days, returning then 



