376 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
writer in the Canterbury Museum fourteen years ago. The hybridi- 
sation of the two species, of common occurrence here, I have also 
observed in the Malvern district. My oological collection includes a 
set of “union eggs,” in which the splashes are of reddish brown, 
greyish brown, and purplish; these marks are bolder and more 
generally distributed over the surface ‘than is usually the case with 
the eggs of the native flycatchers. It is remarkable that the union of 
the two species is in no way alluded to in the Manual of the Birds of 
New Zealand, a work published by authority in 1882. On September 
11, very reluctantly, I took a nest and eggs for the purpose of bring- 
ing this fact of hybridisation more prominently before ornithologists, 
by sending the same to the Royal Zoological Society in London. In 
this instance the cock bird was &. fuliginosa, with the white aural 
plumes very small; the shape of the nest showed the work of R. 
flabellifera; before taking it, I had seen frequently both birds in 
succession on the nest; the hen had to be gently pushed off with the 
finger. It contained three eges, white, with a broad zone of yellowish 
brown specks surrounding the apex; it was built in a forked vine 
of bush lawyer (ubus australis) that trailed over a manuka (Lepto- 
spermum ericordes). 
Nore.—October 15.—Hybrid flycatchers being fed by 2. flabelli- 
Jera, one of them like &. fuliginosa, another like 2. flabellifera. 
Family Laniide—Shrikes. 
Genus—Graucalus. 
38. Grauculus melanops, Lath. 
Black-faced Graucalus, Shrike-thrush.—An occasional straggler. 
Egg in ground-colour varies from wood-brown to asparagus green, the 
blotches and spots, which are generally disposed over the surface, 
varying from dull chestnut-brown to light yellowish brown; in some 
instances they are also sparingly dotted with deep umber brown. 
Length, one inch two and a-half lines; breadth, ten and a-half lines. 
Family Corvide—Crows. 
Genus—Glaucopis. 
39. Glaucopis cinerea, Gril. 
Wattlebird or Crow, Kokako.—I first became acquainted with this. 
bird on the flats of the Wilberforce river, west of the Rakaia gorge, 
on 20th April, 1856; it was abundant amongst the isolated beech 
trees, as well as in the woods; I did not see the next for many years 
after that date. In December, 1869, Donald Potts, one of the 
writer’s sons, found a nest on a limb of a broadleaf (Griselinia litto- © 
ralis), about twelve feet above the ground. This was on the Havelock 
river; it was the first that we had seen after much searching.* In 
January, 1873, I found several nests in the woods in Milford Sound. 
One of these, built on an old structure, was quite two feet across the 
foundation, which was made of sticks and sprays firmly interlaced. 
The basin-shaped nest was formed of twigs and moss (Sphagnum) 
smoothly lined with soft grasses. Its dimensions were, from wall to 
wall, outside, sixteen inches; diameter of cup, eight inches; with a 
* See Trans. N.Z. Institute, Vol. VI., p. 145. 
