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. 



" Eegarding 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. I 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 



