68 BIRDS OF THE WATER 



Firstly, there is the top of a niggerhead or 

 huge rush bush, entirely open to the sky; 

 secondly there is the type of nest placed 

 at the base of flax clumps, niggerhead, or 

 any suitable growth, and to some degree 

 sheltered by overhanging greenery; and 

 thirdly, there is the nest deep in the tall 

 raupo growing on the edge and on the 

 shallow promontories of the lake, and 

 where for years no fires have burnt the 

 mass of sere, brown, hollow-chambered 

 blades. One nest in quite a unique posi- 

 tion, built on a willow tree some two feet 

 above the water was found by me in 

 February of this year, but in all my ex- 

 perience of hundreds of Pukeko nests, I 

 have seen no other, not placed in deep 

 raupo, or on the very top of a niggerhead, 

 or, lastly, at the base of a flax clump or 

 rush bush. The construction of the nest 

 is simple, and the material used such as 

 can be most easily collected, dried or green 

 grasses, raupo, carex, etc., shaped and 

 rounded to the requirements of the birds. 



It is easily found, for after a few days' 

 incubation of the eggs, the adjacent vegeta- 



