106 



gregarious 



together in small flocks, and hunting diligently for its insect food among the branches and dense 



foliage of the forest undergrowth. On being disturbed or alarmed they quickly assemble and 



chirp round the intruder for a few minutes ; and on being reassured they disperse again in search 

 of food. 



* 



Mr. Potts, who may be called the " John WoUey" of our country, and whose beautiful col- 

 lection of eggs is now deposited in the Canterbury Museum, has hitherto been baffled by this 

 little bird. He writes *:—" Although this Creeper may be seen in almost every bush from the 

 coast to the distant alpine ranges, we have only once found its nest. This was in the month of 

 December, and far above the Rangitata gorge. The nest, containing three young birds, was 

 carefully built of moss, with a few feathers, placed in a black birch, between the trunk and a 

 spur, from whence sprouted out a thick tuft of dwarfed sprays, about seven feet from the ground." 

 The egg of this common species is still a desideratum in all our local collections, and I am unable 

 therefore to give a description of it. 



I carefully examined, with the late Mr. G. R. Gray, the examples in the British Museum on 

 which he founded his distinction between Certhiparus novw zealandioe and C. maculicaudus, and 

 am satisfied that it cannot be maintained — a conclusion in which Mr. Gray, I believe, concurred. 



* Trans. New -Zealand Institute, 1869, vol. ii. p. 59. 



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