186 THE ANIMALS OF NEW ZEALAND 



time on August 4th, and by August 20tli it had produced eleven 

 eggs. It then discontinued laying for nine days. After that it 

 continued to lay, on an average, every two days, missing a day or 

 two occasionally. Two of them contracted the pernicious prac- 

 tice of eating their own egg's. The eggs, when cooked, were found 

 to be slightly inferior to those of the domestic fowl. 



He states that the weka. in its natural state, pairs only once, 

 and remains permanently paired, unless by some means the pair 

 are separated. AVriting in Alay. 1903, he says that, during the 

 past three years, he renewed his attempts to breed hybrids, but 

 still without success. By carefully feeding the wekas with suitable 

 food, he had no difficidty in getting them to lay from two to two 

 and a half dozen eggs each in a season. Before laying, they 

 generally utter a peculiar call, and then they must be shut off 

 until they lay. 



The nest of the weka is placed in different situations. Mr. 

 Potts has found it in a tuft of celmisia, a grass tussock, a thicket 

 of young plants, and the outskirts of a bush, and under the 

 shelter of a rock, without any attempt at conceabuent. The nest 

 is large, and the inside is shaped like a basin. The principal 

 material used is generally grass. There are from five to seven 

 eggs. The young may be seen, like chickens, following the old 

 bird, who collects them around her with a call of "toom toom" 

 repeated quickly, and much lower in tone than the booming note 

 to which the weka sometimes gives utterance. As the young grow 

 up, the dark brown of their early days gives place to a more 

 mottled plumage when they are about one-third grown. Although 

 the legs become lighter in colour, the beak still retains its dark 

 appearance. 



Key to the Species. 



1. Tail black with no cross bars. 2 

 Some of the tail feathers barred with rufous. 3 



2. Dark brown. O. brachypterus. 

 Rusty brown above, grey below. O. earli. 



3. Middle tail feathers brownish black. O. finschi. 

 Middle tail feathers banded. i 



4. Larger, tarsus 2'3. O. hectori. 

 Smaller, tarsus 2 O. australis. 



