252 Mr, J. C. M'Lean— Omit hological 



" Saw a flock of White-heads on a manuka flat^ and shot 

 male and female. They were feeding in the trees among the 

 creepers^ mingled with a flock of Blight-birds {Zosterops 

 ccsrulescens) , continually on the move, flying from tree to 

 tree, and feeding in all possible positions ; they chattered 

 and called to each other, while occasionally one came to look 

 at us in an inquisitive manner. Half a mile further on I 

 shot a male White-head from a flock of about twelve indivi- 

 duals in the edge of the bush ; they were moving forward in 

 search of food in the tops of the smaller trees. ^^ 



Rhipidura flabbllifera (Gm.). 



Halcyon vagans (Less.). 



As showing the civilized tastes of some of our birds, two 

 incidents in the nidification of these two species are worth 

 recording. 



In 1888, a pair of Rhipidura fiabellifera built their nest iu 

 a V-shaped piece of twine, knotted to a rafter in the wool- 

 shed, at Te Mata. The nest (which I afterwards saw) was 

 about twelve feet from one of the end doors, and only a few 

 feet above the heads of some of the shearers ; yet the Fantails 

 came in and out and incubated the eggs while shearing, with 

 its attendant noise, was being carried on. 



In the case of the Kingfisher, I took, on January 8, 1884, 

 a nest of this bird from the cut side of an old haystack, into 

 which the bird had tunnelled in the same manner as it does 

 in a sandy bank. 



HiMANTOPUS LEUCOCEPHALUS, Gould. 

 HlMANTOPUS NOVJL-ZEALANDT.E, Gould. 



Writing of H. novce-zealandia , Sir Walter Buller says * : — 

 " Mr. Seebohm suggests that this species is the result of an 

 intermarriage of Himantopits leiicocephalus with H. melano- 

 ptems, and he proposes to call it Himantopus leucocephalus 

 picatus ; but I think it would be extremely unsafe to adopt 

 that view ; for, as a matter of fact, no one has yet recorded 

 an instance of the Black Stilt and the White-headed species 



* ' Birds of N. Z." 2iul ed. vol. ii. p. 26. 



