84 



bird itself, may easily account for its being unnoticed in the bush. The gardens seem to be the 



great attraction here, and they are the best hands I know at picking a cherry- or plum-stone 

 clean ! " , 



All my own personal inquiries at Otago, during my first visit there in February ISGS, led me 

 to the same conclusion. 



In the selection of its breeding-home, this bird has manifested with us the same erratic ten- 

 dencies : thus, for the first three or four years after its permanent location in the North Island, it 

 wintered in the low lands and the districts bordering on the sea-coast, and retired in summer to 

 the higher forest-lands of the interior to breed and rear its young. In the summer of 1865 a few 

 stragglers were observed to remain behind all through the season, and in the following year they 

 sojourned in flocks and freely built their nests in our shrubberies and thickets, and even among 



and tea-tree (Le^fospermu7n) near the sea-shore. From that time to the present 

 it has ranked as one of our commonest birds all the year round ; and, what is even more remark- 

 able, it has very perceptibly increased in numbers, while most of our other insectivorous birds are 

 rapidly declining, and threaten ere long to be extinct. 



To the philosophical naturalist the history of the Zosteroj>s in New Zealand is pregnant with 

 interest, and I feel that no apology is needed for my having thus minutely recorded it. 



A specimen which I gave to the Eev. R. Taylor, and forwarded by him to the British 



?ntified by Dr. J. E. Gray as Zosferops dorsalis. A notice thereof appeared in 



fern 



Museum 



Annal 



species from Australia to New Zealand excited considerable interest. Zosterops dorsalis is found 



Mr 



the same species. The last-named writer informs us that " this bird is stationary in all parts of 



Wales 



forests and thickets, but also in nearly every garden." 



The natives distmguish the bird as Tau-hou (which means a stranger), or Kanohi-mowhiti 

 (which may be interpreted spectacle-eye or ring-eye). It is also called Poporohe and Iringatau, 

 names suggested by its accidental or periodical occurrence. 



Wax 



eye, in allusion to the beautiful circlet of satiny-white feathers which surrounds the eyes ; and 

 quite as commonly the " Blight-bird," or " Winter-migrant." 



I have frequently watched the habits of this little bird, and with much interest. As already 

 stated, it is gregarious, flying and consorting in flocks, except in the breeding-season, when they 

 are to be observed singly or in pairs. As soon as a flock of them alights on a tree, or clump of 

 brush-wood, they immediately disperse in quest of food ; and, on a cautious approach, may be 

 seen prosecuting a very diligent search among the leaves and flowers, and in the crevices of the 

 bark, for the small insects and aphides on which they principally subsist. I have opened many 

 specimens, at all seasons, and I have invariably found their stomachs crammed with minute 

 insects and their larvse. In some I have found the large pulpy scale-insect {Coccus, sp.), of a dull 

 green colour, which is commonly found adhering to the leaves of the ramarama {Myrtus lullata) ; 

 also small caterpillars, grasshoppers, and coleoptera, and occasionally the small fruity seeds of 

 Bubus australis and other native plants. In our orchards and gardens it regales itself freely on 



P 

 P 



luins 



c 



berries 



our fruit-t^^". ■ 

 Ibicb so ^F^ 

 trees ; it ^1— 

 destroy the crc 

 and oth.. 



m 



retu 



roses 

 Surely, 

 may justly be 1 

 ffhich they hai 



This bird 

 cially when coi 

 the male indul 

 to himself or p 

 subdued strain 



If shot at 

 the thicket, hi 

 attempts have 

 confinement n 

 Mrs. Fereday, 

 and I am indi 



were adult bir( 

 partook readil 



extreme displa 

 other's feather 

 of them contr 

 matter from t 

 when the pen 

 turn out the 

 general, each I 



( 



operation was 

 *e bird holdi 

 out one by on. 

 plaintively ant 

 ^^ length one 



t^ liberated 



°^ '^^ open a. 



cat. 



Mr. C-i^, 



P^^en each , 

 note." ' 







