﻿210 Transactions. — Zoology. 



as if discussing the character and intentions of the intruder. After the lapse 

 of a few minutes they have darted away, uttering loud ciies, as if proclaiming 

 to the rest of the forest the presence of a stranger, who was either to be avoided 

 or not, as the case might be. During the winter season the wild birds often 

 nn hesitatingly enter the house for food, making themselves thoroughly at home, 

 and even roosting on the cross-beams in the kitchen on specially inclement 

 nights. Two of these in particular soon learnt how to open the door of the 

 dairy, which they were fond of getting into, in order to regale themselves on 

 cream and butter, both of which they appeared to like excessively. I have 

 had several of these wild birds billing on the eaves of the house in the evening, 

 waiting to be fed, and coming readily to receive from the hand pieces of bread 

 spread thickly with butter and strewed with sugar. But they rarely eat any 

 of the bread itself, dropping it as soon as they had cleared off the butter and 

 sugar. If one bird happened to have finished his portion before the others, he 

 imhesitatingly helped himself to a share of some neighbour's goods, which was 

 always yielded without the slightest demur. They are fond of raw flesh, and I 

 have seen them hovering in front of a sheep's pluck hung on a tree, precisely 

 as a humming bird hovers in front of a flower, eating fragments which they 

 tore off, giving the preference to the lungs. When anxious to get into the 

 house, they take post on the window-sills and beat at the window with their 

 beaks until admitted. They are very mischievous, however, invariably cutting 

 off all the buttons from any article of clothing which may happen to be left 

 within their reach. I regret to say, indeed, that in some instances their 

 familiarity degenerated into such gross impudence, that my manager was 

 obliged to kill them in order to prevent their constant mischief. In the 

 seasons when the great mass of the Phortnium tenax flowers, these birds, feeding 

 on the honey, become very fat, and are then delicious eating. At this time too 

 they are nocturnal in their habits, and may be heard on moonlight nights to a 

 very late hour. They were extremely numerous before the arrival of the 

 Europeans, the natives catching and potting down immense numbers of them. 

 The mode of catching them was as follows : — A Kaka whare was erected in 

 some conspicuous place in, or in the neighbourhood of, forest much frequented 

 by the birds, and thus, by means of a decoy bird, they were attracted and 

 snared. These whares were usually from six to eight feet squai-e, and about 

 five in height, and were constructed of the fronds of some ti-ee fern, placed 

 upright at the sides and across the top of a framework of sajilings. At each 

 corner the saplings projected about eighteen inches above the level of the roof, 

 having a cross-piece about eight inches long fastened nearly at the top, and 

 sloping slightly upwards. To the end of this cross-jDiece a noose was attached, 

 passing through a gxiy at the point of junction, which, slipping readily when 

 pulled by the watcher below, entangled the feet of any bird sitting on the cross- 



