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Mr. Gilbert Mair discovered a nest under the thatched eaves of a Maori hut ; and Mr. E. 



Pharazyn sent me an egg taken from another nest found concealed among the dry roots of a 

 fallen tree. 



The Rifleman has been found breeding as early in the year as the month of August ; and in 

 a specimen which I killed in the Ruahine ranges on the 23rd of December, the ovary contained 

 an undeveloped egg of the size of buck-shot, while the bareness of the underparts bore indication 

 that the bird had already been sitting. From these facts we may, I think, reasonably infer that 

 this species produces two broods in the season. The companion male bird on this occasion also 

 had the abdomen bare, thus afl^ording presumptive evidence that the sexes share the labour of 

 incubation. The. eggs vary in number from three to five ; they are very fragile, almost spherical, 

 and perfectly white. 





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