BurrER.— Notes on the Ornithology of New Zealand, 199 
" by the action of the winds, and the gnats appear to be killed by the 
sulphurous vapour that rises from the water, and are seen floating on the 
surface in countless millions.” 
As a rule the grey duck forms a nest of dry grass or flags, lined with 
feathers and down plucked from her own body, and selects a convenient 
situation on the ground—always well-concealed from view— sometimes at a 
considerable distance from the water. Occasionally, however, a more 
elevated site is fixed upon. On the famous Island of Motutaiko, in the 
Taupo Lake, there are some gigantic pohutukawa trees ( Metrosideros 
tomentosa). In the forked branches of these trees, some twenty or thirty 
feet above the surface of the water, the grey duck often builds her nest 
and hatches her young. The natives state that when the ducklings are 
ready to take to the water the old birds bring them down to the lake on 
their backs. 
HyMENOLEMUS MALACORHYNCHUS, Gray.—Blue Duck. 
Captain Mair informs me that the wio is plentiful in all the mountain 
streams in the Urewera country. When marching with the native con- 
tingent in pursuit of Te Kooti, as many as forty or fifty were sometimes 
caught in the course of a day, some being taken by hand, and others 
knocked over with sticks or stones, so very tame and stupid were they. A 
pair which he obtained as very young birds at Maunga-pohatu lived in the 
Kaiteriria camp for two years, associating freely with the domestic ducks, 
and fairly establishing themselves in the cooking-hut. They were particu- 
larly fond of potato and rice, and would readily take food from the hand. 
Ultimately they took to the lake and disappeared. 
Larus scoPULINUS, Forst.—Mackerel-Gull. 
The following communication from Captain Mair (under date May 13) 
presents this well-known species in the new character of a fruit-eating 
bird :—“ I was greatly surprised on the 1st instant at seeing swarms of the 
small white gull—tarapunga or akiaki of the natives—crowding on the 
angiangi trees (Coprosma) at the mouth of the Maketu River, eating the 
berries. They were so tame that I could have knocked them down with my 
walking-stick. I also saw them in great numbers in the corn-fields at 
Maketu, and again near Tauranga yesterday. I saw a man ploughing 
up a grass-field; a flock of three or four hundred of these beautiful little 
creatures followed his furrow, the horses almost treading on them. They 
followed in the steps of the ploughman so closely that they seemed almost 
to settle between his feet. It was a scramble to see who could be first in the 
furrow after the plough had passed on. A solitary stilt-plover or torea 
( Himantopus) stalked along among com but at a more respectful distance 
from the ploughman.” 
