New Zealand Wrens 613 



to the Oven-birds [Furnarius] ) from which they differ in having ten, instead of the 

 usual number of twelve, tail-feathers, as well as in the arrangement of the scales 

 on the tarsus. Only four or five species are known, these being disposed in three 

 genera, all confined to New Zealand. Of these the Rifleman (Acanthidositta 

 chloris] is not only the smallest but has the distinction of being the smallest 

 bird known from New Zealand, being but three inches in length. The plumage 

 is greenish above, tinged with brown on the forehead and white below tinged 

 with yellowish in the flanks, and there is a white line over the eye, while the 

 blackish tail is tipped with yellowish white, but the tail is so short as to be hardly 

 visible when the bird is in motion. It is found rather abundantly throughout 

 most of both the North and South islands, frequenting the sides and summits 

 of the wooded ranges, where it is described as a very lively and active bird, 

 being incessantly on the move, running up and about the trunks of the larger 

 trees with quivering wings and prying into every chink and crevice with its 

 slender, slightly upturned bill, uttering the while a low, feeble cheep like the 

 cry of a young bird. Its powers of flight are feeble and it simply uses its wings 

 for short passages from one tree to another. It builds a nest of leaves and 

 plant fragments in holes in trees or other cavities and lays white eggs. Closely 

 allied but with a stouter and broader bill are three species of the genus Xenicus, 

 one of which is known as the Rock Wren ( X. gilmventris} and the other as the 

 Bush Wren (X. longipes}, both confined to the South Island. The first is 

 three and seven tenths inches long, olive-brown above and pale brown beneath, 

 while the other is dark green tinged with yellow above and dusky below; it is 

 about four inches in length. The Rock Wren, as the name implies, frequents 

 the rocks, especially the loose talus high up on the mountain sides, where it 

 darts in and out among the piles of angular stones, quite after the manner of 

 our own Rock Wren. The claw of the hind toe is greatly developed, even 

 exceeding the length of the toe itself, a modification of structure especially 

 adapted to the peculiar rock-haunting habits of the bird. It has a weak note, 

 but is apparently not much given to using it, and the nest, a neatly made affair, 

 is placed among rocks or in a crevice in a bank; the eggs, from three to five 

 in number, are pure white. 



The Bush Wren is a rather rare species seemingly on the decline, and is 

 usually seen singly or in pairs or sometimes several may be associated. It is 

 mainly arboreal although occasionally descending to the ground to search for 

 its food. Usually it is seen running along the trunks and branches of the trees 

 with restless activity, peering into every crevice and searching the bark for 

 small insects; like the Rifleman it has only weak powers of flight. The nest 

 is a very neatly made structure, usually placed under an overhanging clay bank, 

 and is used by the birds in wet or stormy weather, and it is said that when one 

 of the birds is wounded or hurt in any way it immediately flees to its nest. It 

 is mainly silent at all times. 



The remaining species, known as the Island Wren (Traversia lyalli], was 

 discovered in 1895 on Stephen Island, a small wooded island only about one 

 square mile in extent in Cook Strait. This bird is about the size of and some- 



