The Zoologist — September, 1874. 4139 



considered rare ; last breeding season they were found sixty miles 

 at least inland. The clear-voiced bell-bird affects orchards and 

 gardens where fruits and flowers abound, and assists in propagating 

 several species of berry-bearing shrubs. The garden likewise has 

 become the shelter and the feeding-ground of the omnivorous 

 Zosterops, which may be looked upon as the most successful of 

 self-invited colonists. The tiny wren [Acanthisitta) reproduces its 

 kind amongst the improvements and amidst the bustle of the wood- 

 land homestead ; its nest has more than once been found in the 

 mortice-hole of a stockyard-post. Its appetite has become depraved 

 to a certain extent, perhaps, by its close acquaintance with the 

 pakeha, as dead bodies of this pretty little species of creeper have 

 been found in hog-tubs — the floating particles of fat had been the 

 tempting but fatal lure. The gray warbler [Gerygone] is now a 

 constant inhabitant of the garden (it has learnt to supplement moss, 

 lichens, spiders'-webs, and other nesting materials with threads of 

 cotton or worsted wool, &c.), and suspends its cleverly-constructed 

 home from the hanging sprays of the blue-gum [Eucalyptus), or 

 fixes it within the sheltering hedge of gorse {Ulex); this habit 

 afiects the domestic economy of the cuckoos, for both Eudynamis 

 and Chrysococcyx makes use of this warbler as a dupe. Last 

 summer instances occurred of both these migrants being reared in 

 gardens in and around the town of Christchurch ; and the whistling 

 cuckoo [Chrysococcyx] was more abundant there than usual. The 

 tit [Petroica) haunts gardens and watches the labourer upturning 

 the soil with all the confidence that is displayed by the redbreast 

 at home. The brown creeper [Cerchiparus] visits the meat-gallows 

 of the stations, for the sake of picking off" morsels of fat, and is 

 often associated when so employed with the noisy parokeet. The 

 latter species takes tribute from the corn-field and fruit-garden 

 when an adjacent bush aff'ords it a refuge. Flycatchers [Rhipi- 

 diirce) of two species frequent sheds and houses, in the autumn 

 especially, finding abundance of food in the minute insects that 

 infest man's habitations; this habit we noticed after the domesti- 

 cation of the house fly, said to be introduced here by the cattle 

 ships from Australia. The raptorial habits developed in the kea 

 [Nestor) in certain alpine districts is an interesting and peculiar 

 incident in bird history. The omnivorous woodhen, which shows 

 so strong an inclination to avail itself of the advantages of the 

 settler's improvements, is too mischievous to be tolerated ; the 



