184 Transactions. — Zoology. 



food from beneath tlie 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 j 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 (Gyathea) ; 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 1 in. 4 lines through the axis with a breadth of 

 11|- 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 

 ofispring 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, excej)ting 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 distance 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 



