■1 H I 



OiiDEit PAS'SERIFORMES.] 



[Family STURNIDjE. 



CREADION CA'E'UNGU-LATUS. '•■■<-,h , 



•'• (SADDLE-BACK.) 



1- : : : 



Creadion carunculatus (Gknelin), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, p. 18. 



In some respects this is one of the most distinctive of our native birds. Its woodpecker-like 

 form, its strangely contrasted plumage of brown and black, with yellow wattles, its lively 

 habits, its clarion cry, and its power of subdued song, all tend to make it an attractive 

 object to the student of Nature. I well remember how intensely interested I was on receiving, 

 a little more than fifty years ago, my first two specimens, which had been shot by a Maori 

 in a clump of bush near the head- waters of the Northern Wairoa, a district in which } this 

 bird had been rarely ever heard of. I examined my specimens with the closest attention, 1 for 

 the Saddle-back was at that time quite new to me, described them very minutely (the pair 

 representing both sexes), and lavished upon them what taxidermic skill I possessed. The 

 male bird, mounted in a glass case, I presented to the Auckland Museum on the occasion of 

 its first opening, and it remained there for many years. I did not become really familiar 

 with the species till I removed to Wellington in 1855. It was then comparatively common 

 in the low woods which environed what is now the City of Wellington, and in the valley : of 

 the Hutt. It was more plentiful than elsewhere in the thick woods of the Makara district, 

 all of which have since disappeared with the spread of agricultural settlement. 

 ■ ; ; I received a fresh specimen from Stephen Island (in Cook Strait) which possesses 

 special interest, not only as proving that the species still exists in this part of the colony, but 

 because it is a very young bird (in the true plumage of C. carunculatus), with very small 

 caruncles and a narrow yellow membrane at the angles of the mouth. The only difference 

 in the plumage is that it is duller than in the adult. Such a specimen as this establishes 

 beyond all doubt the validity of Creadion cinereus as a distinct species. 



Creadion carunculatus is still to be met with on several of the wooded islands in the 

 Hauraki Oulf, but it has entirely disappeared from the mainland. I expected to find it on 

 the Island of Kapiti, but the natives assured me that it had not been seen there for many 

 years. • ■ : :i ; ' '' 



A nest of the Saddle-back, from Okarita, in the Westland district, is a broad, thick, oval 

 structure/composed of twigs, mosses, and dry grass leaves, the latter predominating. It 

 has a somewhat shallow cavity, lined with similar materials, but of finer quality. Altogether 

 it may be regarded as a loosely constructed nest. 



It, is indeed singular how this species, so abundant in our woods thirty or forty years 

 ago, has, without any apparent cause, so completely disappeared from the North Island. 

 It still exists, but in sadly diminished : numbers, in the South Island ; so also does Creadion 

 einereuk ^During two visits to the West Coast Sounds I was only able to obtain one 

 specimen ") of each species. I sought in vain for skins at the various dealers' shops I visited. 

 I believe the current price now is a guinea, and in a few years' time it will be impossible 

 to obtain specimens at any price. 



Speaking on , the subject to old Ihaka ? of ' Ngatiwehiwehi, he said: " Oh, yes; when I was 

 a young, man. the. woods about here [Manakau, Manawatu district,] were swarming with these 

 birds; also with the Kotihe, the Whiowhio, the Pitoitoi, and the Popokatea. Now they are all 



Yol. ii.— 21 





— WW— — i BWIBHf M m Win 



