Ports.—Birds of New Zealand. 145 
its nesting place. A site is selected which perhaps may be admirably adapted 
for concealing the nest, yet ofttimes the foundation is laid where the structure 
is liable to be blown out by gusty winds or cast over, so that its contents 
are destroyed ; several instances of such mischances have we seen. Тһе 
beautifully-made home is probably entirely the work of the hen. We have 
never seen the cock actually place the materials, yet he does his share of labour 
in carefully feeding his mate, not only during the resting-time of incubation, 
but also whilst the nest is being built ; he carries the insects he has collected 
to the close neighbourhood of the busy hen, and calls her to the feast. The 
hen commences sitting before her full number of eggs is laid, and when she 
leaves—not when she is driven from—her charge, feathers are carefully arranged 
above the eggs or young. Compared with some species, the young birds are 
fed for rather a long time in the nest. 
A pair this season built in the roof of a bed-room in Christchurch, but did 
not succeed in rearing any young ones. 
The male weighs not quite half an ounce, being slightly heavier than the 
female. 
Nore.—January llth, 1873. Nest on moss-covered stump, Milford 
Sound. 
No. 36.—KRoPIA CRASSIROSTRIS, (ml. 
The average weight of Thrushes of either sex may be called 31 ounces. 
No. 37-8.—RHIPIDURA. 
Flycatchers. 
August 28th and 29th.—At Ohinitahi, this spring, the writer had two 
union nests under observation almost from the foundation of the structures 
being fixed. In one case the black parent bird (R. fuliginosa) was 
distinguished with the white spot over each ear ; in the second instance the 
dark bird had not any white spot. As these nests were being built simul- 
taneously, season had nothing to do with the assumption of the white 
plumelets. 
The weight of R. flabellifera does not exceed a quarter of an ounce. 
No. 40.—GrAUCOPIS CINEREA, Gn. 
Kokako. 
Orange-wattled Crow, or Wattle-bird. 
The representatives of the Corvide are to be met with on either side of 
Cook Strait. The Middle Island species is the Orange-wattled Crow 
(G. cinerea). It is being driven away by the approach of the colonist, for as 
the coast-line of a large portion of New Zealand exhibited signs, or echoed the 
sounds of the work of the settler in his encroachments on the tangled wilder- 
ness of nature, the Kokako retired to the higher and more remote bushes of 
T 
