144 



of fantastic evolutions, in its diligent pursuit of gnats and flies, is one of the most pleasing and 

 attractive objects in the New-Zealand forest. 



It is very tame and familiar, allowing a person to approach within a few feet of it without 

 evincing any alarm, sometimes, indeed, perching for an instant on his head or shoulders. It 

 will often enter the settler's house in the bush, and remain there for days together, clearing the 

 window-panes of sand-flies, fluttering about the open rooms with an incessant lively twitter during 

 the day, and roosting at night under the friendly roof. It is found, generally in pairs, on the 

 outskirts of the forest, in the open glades, and in all similar localities adapted to its habits of life. 

 It loves to frequent the wooded banks of mountain-streams and rivulets, where it may be seen 

 hovering over the surface of the water collecting gnats ; and I have counted as many as ten of 

 them at one time so engaged. It aff'ects low shrubby bushes and the branches of fallen trees ; 

 but it may often be seen catering for its insect-food among the topmost branches of the high 

 timber. 



■ 



In winter it generally frequents the darker parts of the forest, where insect-life is more abun- 

 dant at that season ; but it is nevertheless to be met with, wherever there is any bush, all the year 

 round. It is a true Flycatcher, subsisting entirely by the chase: darting forth from its perch, 

 it performs a number of aerial evolutions in pursuit of invisible flies, the snapping of its man- 

 dibles as it catches its prey being distinctly audible, and generally returns to the twig from 

 which it started. It hops about along the dry branches of a prostrate tree, or upwards along the 

 tangled vines of the kareao {BJii^ogomtm scandens\ with its tail half expanded and its wings 

 drooping, seizing a little victim at almost every turn, and all the while uttering a pleasant twitter. 

 When hurt or alarmed it immediately closes its pretty fan, and silently flies off* in a direct course, 

 disappearing in the denser foliage. 



It breeds twice in the season, producing four young ones at each sitting. It generally com- 

 mences to build in September, and brings out its first brood about the last week in October. 

 The second brood appears to leave the nest about the beginning of January. 



The nest is a beautiful little structure, compact and symmetrical. A forked twig is 

 the site usually selected ; and the nest, instead of being placed within the fork for support, 

 is built around it, the branchlets being thus made to serve the purpose of braces and stays to 

 strengthen the work and to hold it together. It is, therefore, generally impossible to remove 

 or detach the nest from the branch without tearing it to pieces. In form "it is cup-shaped, 

 the upper part towards the rim being closely interwoven and securely bound, while the base is 

 left unfinished or loosely constructed. The materials composing the foundation are light 

 fragments of decayed wood, coarse mosses, and the skeletons of dead leaves. The centre and 

 upper portion of the nest consist principally of the tough and elastic seed-stems of various mosses 

 finely interwoven. There is an exterior wall composed of cow-hair, the downy seed-vessels of 

 plants, and other soft materials, and the whole is admirably bound together with fine spiders' 

 webs. The interior cavity, which is rather large in proportion to the nest, is closely lined with 

 fibrous grasses, or bent, disposed in a circular form. I have examined numbers of nests, and I 

 have observed that the materials employed vary slightly, according to the locality, specimens 

 collected in the vicinity of farmhouses disclosing tufts of wool, fragments of cloth, remnants 

 of cotton-thread, &c. among the building-materials ; nevertheless, in every instance that has 



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