THE ZooLocist—Jeneg, 1872. 3079 
These and other speculative questions, as well as details of 
structure, such for instance as the articulated superior jaw of the 
parrots, a phenomenon strangely “cropping out” in the hooper as 
lately discovered by Mr. Boyes (S. 8. 2505), will no doubt be fully 
discussed and illustrated in the promised Introduction; but I will 
not anticipate. 
The birds figured and described in the present volume are: 
Hieracidea Nove-Zealandie, Circus Gouldi, Spiloglaux Nove- 
Zealandiz, Sceloglaux albifacies, Stringops habroptilus, Nestor 
meridionalis, Nestor notabilis, Platycercus Nove -Zealandiz, Platy- 
cercus auriceps and Heteralocha acutirostris. Three other species 
are described but not figured, Hieracidea brunnea, Nestor occiden- 
talis and Halcyon vagans, into the history of all of which Mr. Buller 
has fully entered. 
Of Hieracidea brunnea, the sparrowhawk of the colonists, the 
bush hawk of Mr. Buller, that gentleman gives the following 
interesting particulars. 
“The natives state that this little hawk usually builds its nest in a bunch 
of puwharawhara, often at a great elevation from the ground, forming it 
rudely of loose materials; that it lays generally two, but sometimes three 
eggs, and that the young birds remain on the tree for several days after quitting 
the nest. The puwharawhara (Astelia Cunninghamit) is a parasitical plant, 
with short, thickly-set flag leaves, radiating upwards from a clump of roots, 
by which it adheres firmly to the parent tree. These plants, which often 
attain a circumference of many feet, are very common on the forks and 
naked branches of aged or withered trees on the outskirts of the forest, a 
single tree sometimes supporting twenty or more of them. A better situa- 
tion for a hawk’s nest than the centre of one of these plants could hardly be 
selected, combining as it does the requisites of warmth, security and shelter ; 
and the bush hawk seems to be instinctively aware of this. Some years ago I 
was informed that a pair of these birds had bred for several successive 
seasons in a nest placed as described, and situated in the high fork of a dead 
_kahikatea tree near the Horowhenua Lake. Having waited for the 
breeding-season, I offered the natives a half-sovereign each for the eggs; but 
although excellent climbers, they failed in all their attempts to reach the 
nest. They afterwards observed the hawks carrying mice, lizards and 
small birds to their young, and the latter, on quitting the nest, were shot 
and destroyed. When I last visited the spot the old kahikatea was still 
standing, and the bunch of withered Astelia, which had cradled several 
successive broods was still clinging to the tree; but the persecuted hawks 
had quitted their exposed eyrie for some more secure retreat. 
