^°'i if'] Jackson, The Haunt of the Rufous Scrub-Bird. 335 



daybreak at " Atrichia Slope." with the view to removing large 

 quantities of fallen trees, vines, and entangled rubbish at the 

 western end of No. 2 mass, where I had twice seen the female 

 Atrichornis. The scrub was hot and steamy after the continuous 

 and heavy rains, and scrub leeches troublesome. After spending 

 some hours watching for a shot at the female, I finally set to 

 work with axe and hoe to remove more of the debris, in hopes 

 of finding No. 2 nest, if there were one. 



On 14th November I watched the male Atrichornis in a mass 

 of debris (" B " in plan), and at the part numbered 8 in the 

 plan, and standing behind an ironwood tree, ready in case the 

 female should also show herself. He called again and again, and 

 I saw him move in a mass of dead pine twigs and limbs on the 

 western side of the long fallen tree. I felt hopeful the female was 

 with him, as he was ruffled and cleaning his plumage and behaving 

 in an unusual manner, and until he called again I was beginning 

 to think he was the female. He ventured out into the sunlight, 

 kept silent, and sat on a twig with his feathers puffed and wings 

 drooped, just as a domestic fowl will often do when she has 

 chickens feeding about. He did not see me, and I got a really 

 splendid view of him. He remained in the sun for several seconds, 

 and, shaking his plumage, broke the silence with a loud and shrill 

 " chirp," and disappeared in the mass of debris. I remained 

 watching, and again saw him a few times before I made another 

 search in that heap for No. 2 nest. While I was watching the 

 male here, a Dollar-Bird {Enrystotmis paciflcus) was calling in a 

 tall tree near, and the Atrichornis promptly answered by imitating 

 its notes. I never on any previous occasion got such a good 

 sight of the Atrichornis as I did to-day. My radius of search 

 had by this time (14th November) extended to a distance of 250 

 yards from the locality of the nest found on i6th October, and 

 most of the work was carried out in rain. On the 17th November, 

 when removing debris in No. 2 mass, I heard a strange noise at 

 the pine log which lies through the northern side of this heap, 

 and the sound resembled a bird in an excited state, and as if it 

 had young ones. It came from beneath the log, where it was up 

 6 inches from the ground. After much heavy work moving tangled 

 masses of debris, limbs, &c., away, I discovered that the sound 

 emanated from a small grey frog, which was sitting on a dead vine 

 caught under the log. 



This day I again tried to follow the male Scrub-Bird to his 

 roosting-place, and so get an idea where the female and No. 2 

 nest (if it really existed) were. But this I found impossible. He 

 was in No. i mass of debris at 6.30 p.m., when he called, and, leaving 

 it, he apparently worked his way through the dense scrub and 

 debris (silently) and crossed the southern end of the narrow timber 

 track and entered the mass of debris shown in the bottom left- 

 hand corner of the plan, for here he uttered one note at the part 

 marked 6 about 7 p.m., and the scrub at that hour was very 

 dark. This was the only time that I heard this bird call on the 



