284 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
and cultivated. It now haunts the sedges and coarse herbage 
that fringe boggy creeks. 
Thirty years ago it was one of the most common species 
that affected the open country about Rockwood in the Malvern 
district ; the lads called it “utick” from its note. Its nest is 
made of grass, with very thin walls ; sometimes a feather or two 
is added, or a few tufts of wool; it is usually placed in a tus- 
sock, just above the ground; it measures about three inches 
across the top, is usually rather oval than round in shape. The 
egg is ovoid or ovoido-conical, white, speckled with reddish purple 
marks. I have a set marked with purple specks so abundantly 
towards the larger end as to form a confluent ring; the rest of 
the surface is less freely dotted with very small marks of reddish 
purple ; in length they measure nearly ten lines, with a breadth 
of seven and three-quarter lines; three eggs to a clutch usually, 
but have known of four to a nest. 
It breeds during November and December; in the latter 
month I have observed the nest close to the water’s edge of the 
large mere known as the Okarito lagoon. 
November 4, nest with three young in a tussock at the edge 
of a creek, Rockwood Valley. 
November 7, met with four eggs in a swamp by the Hororata 
Stream, in the Malvern Hills. 
21. Sphenoecus fulvus, Gray. 
Utick, Grass-bird or Pheasant-bird—I am not aware that 
the breeding habits of this species differ from those of the last- 
named. The eggs are slightly larger, white marked with reddish- 
purple freckles ; from the Ashburton district. 
22. Sphenoecus rufescens, Buller. 
Chatham Island Grass-bird.—The eggs of this species as 
yet are undescribed. 
Genus—Gerygone. 
23. Gerygone flaviventris, Gray. 
Grey Warbler, Teetotum, Piripiri—The warbler is a true 
pensile nest-builder, and its warm well-built home is one of the 
earliest bird structures we meet with ; it forecasts Spring, instead 
of waiting for that genial season. Almost as soon as the days 
lengthen, the warbler begins its family cares; here is a good 
proof: July 15, nest in a garden in Wellington built in a bush 
of Olearia forsteri; July 16, nest in a weeping-willow over the 
Avon at Christchurch ; this was in 1879. Considering the great 
difference in latitude, this may be considered an instance of very 
early nesting. It makes use of many kinds of trees and shrubs, 
in which it hangs its pouch or buottle-shaped nest, the ertrance 
to which is often protected by a porch-like projection. It would 
require rather an extensive list to enumerate the various 
materials which at times are used in its construction. I 
have thought the earlier nests were usually the best finished 
