6 
note, as if in confidential intercourse. I observed that they usually carried the wattles firmly com- 
pressed under the rami of the lower jaw. 
One of the many interesting discoveries, since the publication of my first edition, has been the 
•finding of the nest and eggs of the Orange-wattled Crow. The Canterbury Museum contains two nests 
of this bird, both of which were obtained at Milford Sound. 
One is a massive nest, with a depth of eight inches, composed of rough materials, but with a 
carefully finished cup. The foundation consists of broken twigs, some of them a quarter of an inch 
in diameter, and placed together at all angles, so as to form a compact support ; over this a layer of 
coarse moss and fern-hair, to the thickness of two inches or more; then a capacious well-rounded cup, 
lined with dry bents, intermixed with fern-hair. The general form of the nest is rounded, but at one 
end of it the twig foundation is raised and produced backwards, for what purpose can only be conjec- 
tured *. The other is of similar construction, composed of numerous broken twigs, intermixed with 
dry moss, and the projection is as conspicuous as in the former, extending some eight inches beyond 
the nest proper, which is about a foot in diameter. The cup-shaped depression is shallower than in 
the other, but has the same thick lining of dry grass. This nest was, I am informed, found among 
the branches of a totara overhanging a stream of water, in the month of January, and contained at that 
time young birds. The other nest also was discovered in the vicinity of water f. 
Two eggs of this species, collected by Docherty on the west coast, were presented by Mr. Potts 
to the Canterbury Museum, where I had an opportunity of examining them. They are of a regular 
ovoido-conical form, one of them being slightly narrower than the other, measuring, respectively, 
1-60 by 1T5, and 1'65 by 1T0 inches. They are of a dark purplish grey, irregularly spotted 
and blotched with dull sepia-brown. These spots and markings are thicker and more prominent 
at the larger end, and of various shades, the lighter ones fading almost to purple and presenting a 
washed-out appearance. 
Mr. W. D. Campbell has published $ an account of two nests which he found, in the month of 
February, in the low bush which covers the river-flats of Westland. One of these nests contained an 
egg, and the other two nearly-fledged birds. The nests, which were built in the branches of the 
Coprosma scrub, about 9 feet above the ground, measured 15 inches externally, were somewhat 
loosely constructed of twigs and roots, and had a well-formed cup-shaped interior, lined with pine- 
roots and twigs. He kept the two young birds for some weeks in a cage for the purpose of studying 
their habits. During life their wattles were of a light rose tint, changing into a violet colour towards 
the base ; but after death, when their skins were dried, the wattles assumed a dull orange tint. 
* In connection with the above I may mention that in the Canterbury Museum there is a much larger nest, from Australia, 
exhibiting the same form of construction in a more pronounced degree. It was presented by the Baron A. von Hiigel, who 
obtained it at Dandenong, Mount Victoria, and who assigns the structure to the Lyre-bird ( Menura superba). It is composed 
chiefly of twigs and small sticks, some of them half an inch in diameter, laid together in a compact mass. The cavity is deep, 
rounded, and lined with soft fern-fronds, some of which are also interlaced with the framework of the nest. Its width on the 
outside is only 15 inches; hut, owing to its extension backwards, its length is 2 feet 6 inches. The cup is situated at the 
proximal end, where the nest is more compact and somewhat raised, but without any appearance of a dome. 
f The author of ‘Out in the Open’ describes, at p. 105, the finding of five nests, at heights varying fiom ten to seventeen 
feet from the ground, in the bush that fringes Milford Sound. This was in the month of January, and one of the nests contained 
two young birds, apparently just hatched. “ They were partially clothed with slate-coloured down, which on the cranium stood 
up like a broad crest, or rather crown ; the neck and underparts were quite bare ; beaks flesh-colour, with a greenish tinge about 
the point of the upper mandible ; rictal membrane pale greenish, changing to blue : wattles rosy pink, like an infant’s hand ; 
le<rs and feet slatish anteriorly, dull flesh-colour behind ; claws dull white. The old bird suffered a close inspection of its homo 
and its inmates without uttering any alarm-cry or showing any signs of defending its young.” 
+ Trans. New-Zealand Instit. 1879, vol. xii. pp. 249, 250. 
