WOOD AND WASTE 69 



tion is trampled into runs, especially if 

 several birds share a nest. After incubation 

 is over and while the young are still 

 returning nightly to the nest, it is impossible 

 for the most unobservant to pass the spot. 

 The tussocks are flattened do^Yn for yards 

 around, empty pipi shells are strewed 

 about, and often there is a large heap of 

 droppings where the birds have been in the 

 habit of doing sentinel duty. 



Sometimes a new nest, or rather plat- 

 form, on a flattened niggerhead smnmit, is 

 specially built for the nestlings, though this 

 may, and probably does, only happen in 

 a partnership nest, when, as the eggs hatch, 

 each hen takes away her share of the 

 chicks. 



Possibly these are from her own eggs, 

 for the first lot laid would be first hatched 

 out and the earliest layer of the two or 

 three hens would be least inclined to con- 

 tinue sitting. She would, therefore, by a 

 sort of automatic process secure her own 

 proper brood, unless, indeed the hens were 

 laying simultaneously, which, however does 

 not seem to usually happen from the time 



