184 Transactions.— Zoology. 
food from beneath the flakes and ragged strips of bark that hang from the 
brown-stemmed fuschia tree. It must be an early breeder. On the Tere- 
makau we have seen the young, almost of adult size, in the first week 
of December. 
For its nesting place a hollow or decayed tree is usually selected, some- 
times the top of a tree-fern is preferred. The first nest we knew of was found 
by an old friend in a hole about four feet from the ground in a huge white 
pine, kahikatea (Podocarpus dacrydioides), close to the bank of the Ahaura 
river ; it contained three eggs hard set. We found a nest in a dead tree-fern 
not far from Lake Mapourika, Westland. This was of slight construction, 
built principally of fern-root, deftly woven into rather a deep-shaped nest with 
thin walls ; as the structure just filled the hollow top of the tree-fern thick 
walls were unnecessary. Another nest, in a small-sized decayed tree in the 
Okarita bush, was in a hole not more than three feet from the ground ; it was 
roughly constructed, principally of fibres and midribs of decayed leaves of the 
kiekie (Freycinetia banksii), with a few tufts of moss, leaves of rimu, lined 
with moss and down of tree-ferns (Cyathea) ; it measured across from outside 
to outside of wall 12 in. 6 lines, cavity 3 inches diameter, depth of cavity 2 in. 
The egg, measuring nearly | in. 4 lines through the axis with a breadth of 
114 lines, is white, sprinkled over with faint purplish marks, towards the 
broad end brownish purple, almost forming one large blotch. The breeding 
season probably extends from September to January ; the young are protected 
. and fed by the old birds till almost full grown ; they are summoned by the 
parent birds with their usual call, nor from this does the note of their active 
offspring greatly differ ; the saddle-back quickly responds to the summoning 
note of its species. An imitation of the sound by the assistance of a leaf 
between the lips serves to attract its presence, and is sometimes used by the 
collector for this purpose. 
The next point to be considered is the plumage ; that of the adult is easily 
described, for the feathers of the sexes fail to exhibit any distinction. The 
collection in the Canterbury Museum contains numerous specimens in the 
young state, procured at different seasons of the year :— 
A.—Female obtained on Banks Peninsula, in the month of March (our 
autumnal period), has the whole plumage cinereous brown, slightly flushed 
with rufous, excepting bastard wing and the inner webs of the tail-feathers 
which are black; outer wing-coverts margined with ferruginous; upper and 
under tail-coverts ferruginous ; wattles very small, pale yellow ; mandibles 
black, except the edge of the basal portion of the lower mandible, which is 
margined with yellow for a dista > of 6 lines ; tarsi and feet black ; claws 
horn-colour ; length of bill from gape 1 inch 4 lines. 
B.—Male killed at Little River Bush in November (early summer), differs 
