84 



bird itself, may easily account for its being unnoticed in the bush. The gardens seem to be the 

 great attraction here, and they are the best hands I know at picking a cherry- or plum-stone 

 clean ! " 



All my own personal inquiries at Otago, during my first visit there in February 1865, led me 

 to the same conclusion. 



In the selection of its breeding-home, this bird has manifested with us the same erratic ten- 

 dencies : thus, for the first three or four years after its permanent location in the North Island, it 

 wintered in the low lands and the districts bordering on the sea-coast, and retired in summer to 

 the higher forest-lands of the interior to breed and rear its young. In the summer of 1865 a few 

 stragglers were observed to remain behind all through the season, and in the following year they 

 sojourned in flocks and freely built their nests in our shrubberies and thickets, and even among 

 the stunted fern and tea-tree (Leptospermum) near the sea-shore. From that time to the present 

 it has ranked as one of our commonest birds all the year round ; and, what is even more remark- 

 able, it has very perceptibly increased in numbers, while most of our other insectivorous birds are 

 rapidly declining, and threaten ere long to be extinct. 



To the philosophical naturalist the history of the Zosterops in New Zealand is pregnant with 

 interest, and I feel that no apology is needed for my having thus minutely recorded it. 



A specimen which I gave to the Rev. R. Taylor, and forwarded by him to the British 

 Museum, was identified by Dr. J. E. Gray as Zosterops dorsalis. A notice thereof appeared in 

 the 'Annals of Natural History' and in other scientific papers, and the supposed migration of the 

 species from Australia to New Zealand excited considerable interest. Zosterops dorsalis is found 

 to be identical with Z. lateralis, Latham ; and Mr. Gould's Z. ccerulescens is merely a synonym of 

 the same species. The last-named writer informs us that " this bird is stationary in all parts of 

 Tasmania, New South Wales, and South Australia, where it is not only to be met with in the 

 forests and thickets, but also in nearly every garden." 



The natives distinguish the bird as Tau-hou (which means a stranger), or Kanohi-mowhiti 

 (which may be interpreted spectacle-eye or ring-eye). It is also called Poporohe and Iringatau, 

 names suggested by its accidental or periodical occurrence. 



By the settlers it has been variously designated as Ring-eye, Wax-eye, White-eye, or Silver- 

 eye, in allusion to the beautiful circlet of satiny-white feathers which surrounds the eyes ; and 

 quite as commonly the " Blight-bird," or " Winter-migrant." 



I have frequently watched the habits of this little bird, and with much interest. As already 

 stated, it is gregarious, flying and consorting in flocks, except in the breeding-season, when they 

 are to be observed singly or in pairs. As soon as a flock of them alights on a tree, or clump of 

 brush-wood, they immediately disperse in quest of food ; and, on a cautious approach, may be 

 seen prosecuting a very diligent search among the leaves and flowers, and in the crevices of the 

 bark, for the small insects and aphides on which they principally subsist. I have opened many 

 specimens, at all seasons, and I have invariably found their stomachs crammed with minute 

 insects and their larva?. In some I have found the large pulpy scale-insect (Coccus, sp.), of a dull 

 green colour, which is commonly found adhering to the leaves of the ramarama (Myrtus bullata) ; 

 also small caterpillars, grasshoppers, and coleoptera, and occasionally the small fruity seeds of 

 Mubus australis and other native plants. In our orchards and gardens it regales itself freely on 



