528 Mr. J. C. McLean on some 
was given up to the axe, and another retreat of this un- 
fortunate species has thus vanished. 
It is a jealous bird and assails any of its own or of other 
species that trespass in its domain. At the nest the greatest 
anxiety is displayed, while the female by fluttering to the 
ground and feigning a broken wing does her best to lead the 
intruder from the spot, and has even been known to attack and 
peck his hand. But usually this bird is tame and confiding 
and often comes quite close to view with soft gaze the 
stranger passing through the scrub, It has been observed, 
when lunch is being eaten in the bush, to approach and 
readily pick up crumbs of bread or biscuit thrown towards it. 
Throughout the winter months the Robin rarely sang, 
but as spring advanced its beautiful notes were heard 
continuously in this particular locality; while its trill, not 
unlike that of Miro toitoi, but softer, sweeter, and more 
musical, was first heard on September 6th. It is one of our 
best songsters. 
Its nests, among the most handsome that I have seen, were 
taken, one with very much incubated eggs on September 28th 
and one with fresh eggs on the previous day. In each case 
the axes were within a few yards of the site. The nest is 
also one of the most protective built by any of our bush-birds. 
Placed low down in the fork of some moss-clad, gnarled, and 
knotted Tawhera amid dense Nei-nei scrub, with the moss of 
which it is composed still green with dampness, the rich 
brown rootlets of the rim fresh as the day they were plucked 
from the living plant, and the handsome eggs harmonising 
with the lining of bleached grass-blades, it presents a picture 
rarely seen. A zone of darker rootlets in the centre of the 
wide rim adds much to its beauty, but unfortunately this 
fades as the nest dries and is barely discernible in the 
photographs. In all the nests of this species that I have 
examined the same kind of lining has invariably been used. 
The Robin is an old acquaintance *, and I have noted it for 
many years in another somewhat limited and gradually 
decreasing area, where, though not now so common, it still 
* See ‘Ibis,’ 1892, p. 251. 
