NOTES. 405 



week later, when Mr. P. F. Bunyard accompanied me, the 

 nest was plainly visible and we saw the hen bird carry some 

 lining- material to it. I climbed the tree a fortnight after 

 the date of the commencement of the nest and found it 

 completed, but the lining had been pulled up into a heap 

 in the centre, and possibly this had been done by squirrels, 

 which here abound. No birds have since been seen near 

 this nest. 



On March 12th and 13th we observed two pairs of birds 

 breaking off dead pine-twigs, and carrying them to nesting- 

 sites out on the branches, from thirty to forty feet from the 

 ground. At one of these the birds were not seen again and 

 the nest-foundation never assumed a definite form. The 

 other looked completed on the 19th, when, as we watched it, 

 both birds came into the tree. The female went straight 

 on to the nest and stayed there, but the male flew away. 

 Mr. Bunyard climbed to this nest on the 25th, and found 

 three eggs, incubation having just commenced. Whilst 

 he was examining the eggs both birds flew round his head, 

 uttering a chirping note incessantly. The nest itself was 

 composed of dead pine-twigs on the outside, and a lining of 

 shreds of bast, or inner bark, of birch and other trees, together 

 with fine fibres and two or three feathers. It was rather 

 larger than a Greenfinch's nest and the wall was about as 

 thick. 



On March 19th two more pairs were seen with nesting- 

 materials. As in a previous case, one of the nests was only 

 partially completed, but the other seemed nearly finished 

 on the 25th when we saw one bird carry a white feather to it. 

 This nest was placed at the tip of a fifteen-feet branch, and 

 required a fifty-stave ladder to reach it when examined on 

 April 2nd. It was not quite fully lined. No birds were seen 

 near it before the ladder was brought, nor have any been 

 seen there since. 



On the same date I discovered another nest, also placed 

 on a branch at a height of about thirty feet, and containing 

 two eggs, on which sat a green bird. She refused to move 

 till my hand almost touched her, and then flew round the 

 nest and over my head uttering the alarm-note. The male 

 also seemed much disturbed, chirping his alarm-note, as he 

 flew about the trees near by. On the 5th this nest contained 

 four eggs, and then the male did not once put in an appear- 

 ance during the time I was present. 



All the nests found were composed of similar materials 

 to those used in the one already described. 



