4484 THE ZooLocist—JUNE, 1875. 
the pigeon in the arrangement of the slender twigs which form the 
well-poised platform on which it rears its young. ‘The slight 
fabric, which at first glance appears of a rude, careless make, has 
its materials so nicely adjusted as to bear with safety the weight 
of its heavy builders. It may be said to resemble somewhat the 
hollow of the human hand. In the slight depression of the platform 
the egg, or young, lies undisturbed by the swaying caused by the 
passing wind. Last January, in Milford Sound, the writer obtained 
several nests, in one of which was a young one a few days old. 
January 9. Nest near the Cledau River, in a sapling miro (Podo- 
carpus), about eighteen feet above the ground; it contained one 
young bird sparsely covered with brownish yellow down, which 
was longest over the neck and breast; abdomen bare; bill dull 
flesh, inclining to slaty; round the eye bare; yellowish spot on 
upper mandible; legs, feet and claws leaden to flesh-colour. On 
the nest, with the young bird, there yet remained some fragments 
of egg-shell and pieces of dung. The spaces and openings of the 
latticed nest befit the dirty habits of the pigeon; as the excrement 
dries, probably most of it disappears through the nest. 
The writer has a beautiful specimen of the nest from the Little 
River Bush, Banks Peninsula; it was built on a totara (Podocarpus 
totara), on a branch covered with Loranthus micranthus, and con- 
tained one fresh egg (April 14th). The egg, of pure and glossy 
whiteness, is of a perfect oval form, measuring in length one inch 
ten lines, with a breadth of one inch four lines. A pigeon weighs 
one pound ten ounces; sometimes this is rather exceeded. In 
July and August this bird feeds on the Polypodium australe. 
Plover (Charadrius obscurus, Gmel.).—In October last Donald 
Potts found a nest which contained four eggs; three of these were 
those of the plover, the fourth being that of the common tern 
(S. antarctica). 
Crookbill (Anarhynchus frontalis, Quoy).—In the ‘Ibis’ for 
January, 1873, also in Dr. Buller’s book (p. 219), appear statements 
that the pectoral band is less conspicuous on the left than on the 
right side of the crookbill. The fact is that the shape of the pectoral 
band is not very regular, and that the black feathers may be found 
to be most conspicuous either on the left or right side in different 
individuals, as any one can ascertain who looks through a series 
of specimens when he may not have the opportunity of noticing 
living birds. 
