WOOD AND WASTE 133 



tearing and tugging at the manuka like a 

 very termagant. 



In this particular case, as a matter of 

 fact, she again took to her nest, where the 

 full brood was hatched out and reared, but 

 I have since wondered if I then witnessed, 

 though perhaps in a minor degree, one of 

 those fits of blind passion or jealousy that 

 cause a bird to throw out and destroy its 

 own eggs. 



The early nests are built with comparative 

 leisure, but the late in very great haste and 

 finished in a day or two. A nest discovered 

 late in January, with only the rudiments of 

 its base begun at 10 a.m., was practically 

 complete by the afternoon of the following 

 day, the Fantails then putting on the 

 finishing touches and binding the edges 

 with web. This nest contained but a single 

 egg. Probably the Fantail rears on 

 occasion three broods, for little time is 

 allowed to elapse between the abandonment 

 of the grown brood and the construction of 

 another nest, and I have seen members of 

 the former brood still supplicating food 

 from one of a pair just about to take its 



