41 



inasmuch as he is labouring at a complete work on New Zealand Birds. As 

 some time must, however, elapse before his work can be placed in the hands 

 of the public, I beg to offer my small budget of information concerning the 

 mode of nidification and breeding habits of several species, which have come 

 under my own observation, many of which are rapidly becoming scarce. I do 

 so. not only in the hope of its proving of some utility, however slight, but also 

 that others may be induced to communicate their observations, even in a like 

 imperfect shape, and thus lend their assistance in studying our page in 

 the great Book of Nature. 



Some of the information here given has been already forwarded to Mr. 

 Buller, at his request, having been gathered from notes and memoranda, made 

 by my sons, and myself, during a long residence in various districts of the 

 Province of Canterbury, where we enjoyed favourable opportunities for 

 pursuing a favourite study. 



" Some to the holly hedge 

 Nestling repair, and to the thicket some ; 

 Some to the rude protection of the thorn 

 Commit their feeble offspring : the cleft tree 

 Offers its kind concealment to a few, 

 Their food its insects, and its moss their nests. 

 Others apart far in the grassy dale, 

 Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave. 

 But most in woodlands solitudes delight, 

 In iinfrequented glooms, or shaggy banks, 

 Steep, and divided by a babbling brook, 

 Whose murmurs soothe them all the live-long day, 

 When by kind duty fix'd." — Thomson. 



The Birds of New Zealand present to the observing naturalist, most 

 interesting studies in their breeding habits, and various modes of nidifica- 

 tion, varying from the compactly-felted nest of the BJhipidurae, or Mohouse, 

 through easy gradations, every step of which is instructive, till we reach the 

 bare spray-washed rock, on which the Whalebird rears its hardy offspring. 

 They offer to our notice examples of burrowers, troglodytes or semi-burrowers, 

 ground-builders, parasites, and the more or less elaborately-finished structures, 

 which are to be found amongst the incessorial families, in which division the 

 faculty or instinct of bird architecture appears to reach the highest development. 

 Any one who has enjoyed the opportunity, must have been filled with 

 admiration, whilst watching and considering the varying conditions under 

 which the young of different species are reared.* We see that some are fed 

 in the nest till they are well-grown as the kingfisher and penguin ; others 

 may be said to assist the work of their parents, by following them as soon as 

 they are hatched, and thus materially diminishing the labour of bringing up, 

 by being themselves able to reach the locality of their food supply. Examples 

 of these latter may be found amongst the Ballidae, Charadriae, and Anatidse ; 

 whilst, as observed before, the young of the genera Halcyon and Spheniscus (true 

 burrowing species) remain in their tunnelled holes till well-fledged and well- 

 grown. Yet in the case of Hymenolaimus melacorhynchus (which has some 

 claim to be classed as a burrower), a young brood may be noticed with the old 

 birds, on a lake or river, riding on the rippling waves, and floating with 

 buoyancy and ease for hours. The Charadriae at the best are but indifferent 



* In a recent work Professor Owen makes this suggestion, ' ' A binary division 

 of the class (Aves) may be founded on the condition of the newly -hatched young, which 

 in some orders are able to run about, and provide food for themselves, the moment they 

 quit the shell (aves precoces) ; whilst in others the young are excluded feeble, naked, 

 blind, and dependent on their parents for support (aves altrices)." See Anatomy of 

 Vertebrata. — Owen. 



