WOOD AND WASTE 143 



spring he is even more rarely to be seen; 

 lie has then, like all the native species, 

 retired to breed in deeper solitude than a 

 New Zealand homestead can afford, but 

 though gone, he has not gone far, and his 

 faint song is still distinctly audible from 

 the house. 



In some dark manuka thicket his pear- 

 shaped nest is built, or deeply set in some 

 dense branched bush. The nest itself is 

 not unlike that of the British Long-tailed 

 Tit, similar in the neat finish and feather 

 lining, but our New Zealander has often a 

 tiny portico above, or little ledge beneath, 

 his entrance hole. The five or six eggs 

 are sometimes almost quite white, sometimes 

 they are freckled like a Wren's, with tiny 

 spots at the thicker end. The Warbler sits 

 close, and often when feeling for eggs or 

 3^oung I have touched the old bird in her 

 nest. The j^oungsters grow with great 

 rapidity, and for some time after quitting 

 the nest they may be seen all together, 

 haunting the vicinity of their old home. 

 Watching the parents and brood together 

 thus in a family party, the young able to 



