BuruER.— Further Notes on the Ornithology of New Zealand. 203 
The history of the first arrival of this pretty little bird in the North 
Island in 1856 is too familiar to need repeating. It was several years 
before it became acclimatized, but once fairly established amongst us, it 
has continued to increase and multiply, and now it disputes possession of 
our gardens and hedgerows with the introduced sparrows and finches, and 
swarms all over the country. In the Bay of Plenty district it is said to be 
particularly plentiful, so much so as to form an article of food to the 
natives. They are in season in the months of March and April, and are 
then collected in large numbers, singed on a bush fire to take the feathers 
off, and forthwith converted into huahua and potted in calabashes. The 
catching is effected in a very primitive way. The birds have their favourite 
trees upon which they are accustomed to congregate. Selecting one of 
these, the bird-catcher clears an open space in the boughs and puts up 
. several straight horizontal perches, under which he sits with a long supple 
wand in his hand. He emits a low twittering note in imitation of the birds’ 
and, responding to the call, they cluster on the perches, filling them from 
end to end. The wand is switched along the perch, bringing dozens down 
together, and a boy on the ground below picks up the stunned birds as they 
fall Captain Mair, when visiting Ruatahuna on one occasion, had brought 
to him, by two Urewera lads, a basket containing some five or six hundred 
of these little birds which had been killed in the manner described. 
In front of the Rev. Mr. Spencer’s house at Tarawera, in a hedge of 
Laurustinus, scarcely six yards from the door, upwards of twenty nests of 
Zosterops were found at one time, each containing from three to five eggs 
(generally the former) of a'lovely blue colour. Usually, however, these 
birds do not breed in communities but scatter themselves in the nesting- 
season. | 
Mytomorra Torror, Reich.—Pied Tit. 
This familiar little bird, the ** Tomtit" of the colonists, is far less 
plentiful than it formerly was in our fields and gardens. There seems no 
reason to fear, however, that the species is dying out, for in the Fagus 
forests of the interior I have found it extremely plentiful. In the woods 
at the foot of Ruapehu and neighbouring high lands, where, save the 
occasional twitter of small birds in the branches, all is silent as the grave, 
this pretty little creature is always to be met with. It flits noiselessly from 
one tree to another, then descends to the ground, and in a few instants 
reappears on its perch, flirting its tail upwards, and emitting at intervals a 
soft, trilling note of exquisite sweetness. Destitute of animal life as these 
sub-alpine woods undoubtedly are, they are not without their attractions. 
Owing to their high elevation vapour-clouds are continually hanging over 
them, causing a perpetual moisture. In consequence of this the trees on 
