310 Transactions. —Zoology. 
efforts to induce her to sit again were unavailing. She laid two more eggs 
a month afterwards, and had sat seven days, when, I regret to say, I had to 
leave home for medical treatment at Timaru. When I returned, eight days 
afterwards, she was still sitting and continued to sit until the 17th Novem- 
ber, when she left the eggs without bringing out the young. The eggs 
must have been allowed to get cold, when eight or nine days sat-on, as when 
I tried to blow them I found they contained embryo chicks. I am glad, 
however, that I succeeded in getting the eggs; another season I may suc- 
ceed in getting young birds. I supplied them with many different articles 
of food, such as beetles, lizards, mice, rats, rabbits, and mutton, of all of 
which they partook freely; but they have the greatest preference for 
young or half-grown rats. They are a little slow and clumsy in cap- 
turing living prey, but their want of proper exercise and freedom may 
account for this; it may be otherwise in their wild state. After what 
I have pointed out, there can be no doubt that the Sceloglaux inhabits 
the dry warm crevices of rocks. All the birds I captured I found in 
such places, generally five or six yards from the entrance, perfectly dry, 
and where no wet could possibly enter. One thing surprised me much— 
the very narrowness of the entrance to their cranny. In some instances 
the birds must have forced themselves in. I noticed, however, that the 
crevices widened as they extended into the rock. The bottoms are covered 
with soft sand crumbled down from the sides, and affording comfortable 
resting places. 
** Regarding the nidification of this bird, I am no longer surprised that 
so little is known, and likewise of its natural habits. Considering that it 
conceals. itself in such inaccessible places, and where few would think of 
searching to find it, as a rule they could lay their eggs and hatch their 
young unseen and unmolested. 
“ The breeding season may be said to take place in September and 
October. 1 found the bird mentioned in last letter sitting on an egg on the 
25th September; but it must have been laid about the beginning of the 
month, as it contained the chick I sent you. I discovered the bird by 
reaching a long stick with a lighted taper into the crevice. My captives 
laid on 23rd, 27th, and 29th September, and again on the 20th and 22nd 
October. The birds were very restless and noisy for a fortnight before 
nesting. They begin to moult in December, and are not yet (Feb. 8) in full 
plumage. When casting their feathers they have a very curious appear- 
ance, as they become almost naked. At this stage two of my birds were 
stung to death a month ago by a swarm of bees passing through the fine 
wire netting and taking up their quarters on the roof of their dark recess. 
I was very sorry to lose them, as I cannot now send a living pair. I have 
