THE SOLITARY ROCK WARBLER. 
99 
substances; it is suspended by a narrow neck. The bird 
is social in its habits^ as the naturalist we have quoted found 
sometimes three or four of these nests^ suspended to the roof 
of the same small^ dark cavern. The bird^ w^hich is brown 
above and rusty-coloured below^ frequents the neighbourhood 
of watercourses and rocky gullies^ in which_, like our dipper 
and wagtail, it finds its insect food ; it never visits the forests, 
and Mr. Gould never saw it even perch on the branch of a tree. 
It is charming in a book of travels to meet with a lover 
of Natural History; and w^hen we read about the natives 
of our antipodes, wdth their curious manners and strikingly- 
different appearance from ourselves, it is pleasing to find 
that " they too have song-birds.'' Most of the birds referred 
to in the two following paragraphs belong to this group. 
The Rev. William Yate, of the Church Missionary Society, 
resided seven years in New Zealand, and the results of his 
observations appeared in 1835. He evidently carried with 
him from England a great love of birds: — ''Nothing can 
possibly exceed the exquisiteness of a morning concert, as 
performed in the ample woods of these islands. One of the 
greatest treats which I enjoy, is to be wakened in my tent 
by the loud and lovely voices of the only musicians I have 
met with since I left the lark and the nightingale behind me 
