508 MR. T. n. POTTS ON" KEROPIA CRASSIROSTRIS. 



usual associates, at any rate during the summer months, are Tuis, 

 Perroquets, and Cobins ; and many a long stretch of river-bed, 

 fragrant with many flowering shrubs, resounds with their varied 

 notes. Not much secretiveness is displayed in the choice of a 

 site for its nest, which may be found at varying distances above 

 the ground, from 4 to 12 feet and upwards, usually at 7 or 8 feet. 

 The structure is firmly and compactly built, with small sprays for 

 the foundation, on which moss is abundantly interwoven with 

 pliant twigs ; the lining is usually of fine grass-bents, though 

 some nests are finished off with soft tree-fern down, and are usu- 

 ally placed in Tutu (Coriaria), sometimes in Coprosma or Lepto- 

 spermum. 



Rivals of its own species, as well as other birds, are driven 

 off most resolutely from the neighbourhood of its home. 



Probably it breeds twice in the season. Although we have not 

 observed more than two eggs to a nest, yet we have found four 

 eggs tolerably formed in the ovary of a female killed at Christmas- 

 time ; the proper complement of eggs is probably four to a nest. 

 The egg is of ovoid, sometimes elongated, form, pure white, 

 spotted with blackish brown or black, purplish at the edges of 

 the spots ; sometimes the egg is of a delicate pinkish tinge, just 

 staining the white, spotted with brownish grey, with purplish 

 blotches at the larger end. 



Prom a nest found at Arahura we have an egg that exactly 

 resembles in its colour and marking that of Oriolus galhula of 

 Europe. In size this specimen measures through the axis 1 

 inch 3| lines, with a diameter of lines. 



Prom the river Waio, in a nest about 12 feet from the ground, 

 in a bush of Coriaria, the eggs, two in number, were of elon- 

 gated form, and measured in length 1 inch 7 lines, by nearly 

 an inch in width. 



December 27th. Biver "Waio ; found a nest in a small-leaved 

 Coprosma (probably rhamnoides), the hen incubating a single 

 egg ; she remained on the nest until pushed off ; the cock bird 

 was summoned by a jarring call; and both birds joined in a 

 bold defence. 



Near Lake Mapourika, in a very swampy situation, we found 

 a nest with the walls very thickly built of moss and Manuka 

 sprays interwoven ; it was placed about 15 feet from the ground 

 in a tall Manuka. After looking at scores of nests, the dimen- 

 sions, we find, average: — across the top, from outside of wall to 



