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Mr. Potts informs me that, in Canterbury, this species begins nesting early in October. In 

 one instance, within his own observation, the birds commenced incubation on October 16, the 

 young were hatched on October 25, and left the nest on November 4. In the North Island the 

 breeding-season is somewhat later. As late as the 24th of December I met with a nest in the 

 Taupo-Patea country, containing two perfectly fresh eggs. The nest is a slight cup-shaped struc- 

 ture, with a rather large cavity for the size of the bird, and is generally found suspended by side- 

 fastenings to hanging vines, or to the slender twigs of Leptospermum^ Olearia^ and other shrubs, 

 and sometimes to the common fern (Pteris aquilina). The eggs are generally three in number 

 (sometimes four), ovoido-conical in form, and of a beautiful uniform pale blue colour. 



Nests of this species exhibit some variety, both as to structure and the materials of which 

 they are composed. Of three specimens now before me, one is of slight construction and shallow 

 in its cavity, composed externally of green-coloured lichen, spiders' nests, the downy seed-vessels 

 of the pikiarero (or flowering clematis), and a few dry leaves, lined internally with long horse-hair 

 disposed in a circular form ; another is of smaller size, more compact, composed externally of 

 crisp dry moss, and internally of grass-bents with a few long hairs interlaced ; while the third has 

 the exterior walls constructed entirely of spiders' nests and stiff fibrous mosses, the former predo- 

 minating, and the interior lining composed wholly of long horse-hair. 



A specimen which I found suspended in a clump of creeping kohia {Passiflora tetrandra) 

 was composed externally of the pale green and rust-coloured lichen so abundant on the branches 

 of dead timber, intermixed with spiders' webs, and lined inside with dry fibrous grasses, the whole 

 being laced together with hair, the long straggling ends of which projected fi-om every part of 

 the nest ; and another, which was obtained from the low brushwood bordering on the sea-shore, 

 was built of sheep's wool, spiders' nests, pellets of cow-hair, and fine seaweed firmly bound toge- 

 ther with long thread-like fibres, apparently the rootlets of some aquatic plant, and lined inter- 

 nally with fine grass-bents and soft feathers. Sometimes the nest is constructed wholly of bents 

 and dry grass. 



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