Potts. — Birds of New Zealand. 145 



its nesting place. A site is selected wMch perhaps may be admii-ably adapted 

 for concealing the nest, yet ofttimes tlie foundation is laid where the structure 

 is liable to be blown out by gusty winds or cast over, so that its contents 

 are destroyed ; several instances of such mischances have we seen. The 

 beautifully-made home is probably entirely the work of the hen. We have 

 never seen the cock actually place the materials, yet he does his share of labour 

 in carefully feeding his mate, not only during the resting-time of incubation, 

 but also whilst the nest is being built ; he carries the insects he has collected 

 to the close neighbourhood of the busy hen, and calls her to the feast. The 

 hen commences sitting before her full number of eggs is laid, and when she 

 leaves — not when she is driven from — her charge, feathers are carefully arranged 

 above the eggs or young. Compared with some species, the young birds are 

 fed for rather a long time in the nest. 



A pair this season buUt in the roof of a bed-room in Christchurch, but did 

 not succeed in rearing any young ones. 



The male weighs not quite half an ounce, being slightly heavier than the 

 female. 



Note. — January 11th, 1873. Nest on moss-covered stump, Milford 

 Sound. 



• No. 36. — Kekopia crassirostkis, Gml. 



The average weight of Thrushes of either sex may be called 3|- ounces. 



No. 37-8. — Rhipidura. 

 Flycatchers. 



August 28th and 29 th. — At Ohinitahi, this spring, the writer had two 

 union nests under observation almost from the foundation of the structures 

 being fixed. In one case the black parent bird {R. fidiginosa) was 

 distinguished with the white spot over each ear j in the second instance the 

 dark bird had not any white spot. As these nests were being built simul- 

 taneously, season had nothing to do with the assumption of the white 

 plumelets. 



The weight of R. flahellifera does not exceed a quarter of an ounce. 



No. 40. — Glaucopis cinerea, Gml. 

 Kokako. 



Orange-wattled Crow, or Wattle-bird. 

 The representatives of the Corvidce are to be met with on either side of 

 Cook Strait. The Middle Island species is the Orange- wattled Crow 

 (G. cinerea). It is being driven away by the approach of the colonist, for as 

 the coast-line of a large portion of New Zealand exhibited signs, or echoed the 

 sounds of the work of the settler in his encroachments on the tangled wilder- 

 ness of nature, the Kokako retired to the higher and more remote bushes of 



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