64 



The Black and Pied Flycatchers breed together frequently. 



Note. — Dec. 8th — 1ST est and eggs of R. fuliginosa fixed on a rock abutting 

 on the creek in Valehead Bush, Malvern Hills ; within a few feet, on the same 

 rock, were two old nests. 



No. 47. — Platycercus Nov,e Zelandi^e, Sparrm. 

 Kakariki. 

 Parroquet. 



As far as we are aware, the breeding habits of this variety of Platycercus 

 differ in no material point from those of P. auriceps. We have been told that 

 occasionally it breeds on rocks. 



Eggs, oval in shape, measure 1 inch \\ lines in length, by 10 lines in 

 breadth. 



This species is frequently to be seen caged ; in confinement it imitates the 

 human voice, with tolerable distinctness. This bird, as well as the smaller 

 species, is frequently shot for food. 



No. 50. — Platycercus auriceps, Kuhl. 

 Kakariki. 

 Parroquet. 



The smaller Parroqiiet is a beautiful object, as with merry note it darts 

 across the forest glade, with its bright green plumage glinting in the sunshine, 

 giving at once a foreign impress to the scene, in the mind of the English 

 settler. 



Troglodytal in its breeding habits, it seeks some hollow tree or branch in 

 which to rear its young ; sometimes its nest is placed between the wood and 

 the dissevered bark of a decaying tree ; more frequently at the bottom of some 

 deep hole. The eggs are white, and somewhat oval in shape. 



In the gardens situated near bush, the Parroquet becomes a great 

 purloiuer of fruit. Near Arowhenua and Waimate, we have seen it rising in 

 flocks from the oat-ricks. It is so bold as to be very easily snai'ed with a tohe- 

 tohe reed, noosed at the tapering point. 



It commences breeding in August. 



Since the great fall of snow, July, August, 1867, all bush-birds about the 

 Malvern Hills appear to have become scarcer ; for quite a year after that great 

 storm, the silence in the bushes seemed quite remarkable, as though entirely 

 deserted by their feathered songsters. This was notably the case in the 

 Bockwood Bush. 



No. 51. — Nestor meridionalis, Gml. 

 Kaka. 

 Bush Parrot. 



One of the commonest of our lai'ger birds ; yet in most of our bushes it is not 

 nearly so numerous as it was a few years since. A troglodyte it may certainly 

 be termed, for in the choice of a situation for its nesting-place, it seeks the 

 shelter of a hollow tree. Sometimes the entrance-hole is a considerable distance 

 from the nest, which is merely the decaying wood at the bottom of the hole. 

 It lays four eggs, which, like those of most birds that breed in holes, are white ; 

 ovoiconical in form, they measure in length 1 inch 9 lines, by 1 inch 3 \ lines. 

 Sometimes, before the young are old enough to vacate the nest, it recommences 

 laying. It is in considerable request as an article of food ; they are fattest in the 

 great Eagus forests, during the month of April. It is very easily snared, and 

 readily tamed. The call of one bird in distress will soon cause it to be 

 surrounded by numbers. A very common artifice is to hold a Kaka by the 

 wing, its shrill call soon collects a crowd of its friends on the neighbouring 



