145 



come under my notice, the use of spiders' webs for binding the walls has been adhered to, thus 

 manifesting a very decided instinct. The eggs are usually four in number, slightly ovoido-conical, 

 and measuring -7 of an inch in length by '5 in breadth ; they are white, with numerous purplish- 

 brown freckles, denser and forming an obscure zone towards the larger end. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, in his account of the Red-throated Widow-bird (Vidua rubritorgues, 

 Swains.), says : — " These birds build among the grass in the open country. The nest is curiously 

 built. They select a convenient tuft of grass, and interlace the blades as they stand, without 

 breaking them off ; so that the nest is green during the whole term of incubation, and is very 

 beautiful when thus seen." This brings to my recollection a very pretty nest of the Pied 

 Fantail which I found in the Kaipara woods many years ago. It was smaller and more cup- 

 shaped than the generality of these nests, and was composed chiefly of moss firmly bound together 

 with spiders' webs ; but it was an " old nest," and the winter rains had soaked it, causing the 

 moss to vegetate afresh ; and when it came into my hands it was covered on the outer surface 

 with a luxuriant growth of stunted moss of the brightest green, and presented a very beautiful 

 appearance. 



To any one having any experience of bird-craft, it is very easy to discover the nest of this 

 species. The movements of the old birds, properly interpreted, are a very sure index. As you 

 approach the nest, the Fantails, which follow your steps with an incessant twitter, become 

 ominously silent. If you fail immediately to discover the object of your search, and chance to 

 wander away from it, the anxious little birds give vent to their joy by an exuberant strain of 

 notes, which, as I have often thought, might be appropriately compared to the supposed merry 

 laugh of one of Gulliver's Liliputians. On one occasion I succeeded in capturing the old bird 

 on the nest, which was found to contain four unfledged young ones. I placed my captive in a 

 cage, together with the nest and young : she refused food, and vented her rage by pecking her 

 young ones to death. On the following morning I liberated the parent, regretting much that I 

 had invaded her domestic happiness. 



The multiplication of numbers by second broods, in the proportion of four to one, as already 

 noticed, appears to me a wise provision of Nature to save the species from extinction. At the 

 close of the breeding-season the Fantails, principally in the immature plumage, are excessively 

 abundant ; by the end of the year their numbers have been considerably thinned, owing to the 

 joint ravages of the wild cat, the Bush-Hawk, and Morepork, to all of which this defenceless 

 little creature falls an easy prey. The reproduction by each pair of eight young ones every 

 season seems, therefore, almost necessary to preserve the very existence of this species in the 

 balance of life. 



Long may the Pied Fantail thrive and prosper, in the face of cats, owls, naturalists, 

 and the whole race of depredators ; for without it our woods would lack one of their prettiest 

 attractions, and our fauna its gentlest representative. 



