43 
head and of yellow on the body, there being a bright wash of canary-yellow on the breast. Wings and tail 
parti-coloured, several of the tail-feathers being entirely black ; bill and feet white. 
Obs. Individuals vary much both in size and in the tone of their colouring, some males having the underparts 
of a uniform pale lemon-yellow, others rich canary-yellow, deepening into orange on the breast. The one 
figured is a highly coloured specimen in my own collection. A specimen in the Canterbury Museum 
measures only 4' 75 inches in length, corresponding, both in size and plumage, with the type of Mr. G. It. 
Gray’s M. dieffenbachii ; and I have received equally small examples from the Chatham Islands ; but, after 
a very careful comparison, I am unable to admit the validity of the supposed new species*. 
This Tomtit is the South-Island representative of the preceding species, which is only found north 
of Cook’s Strait. It appears, however, to enjoy a wider geographical range ; for I obtained specimens 
at the Chatham Islands, and the Antarctic Expedition brought some from the Auckland Islands. 
The stomachs of all those 1 opened were crammed with small diptera, coleoptera, and cater- 
pillars, showing the strictly insectivorous character of this species. 
The habits of this bird are similar to those of its northern ally (M. toitoi), except that it appears 
to be less recluse in its nidification ; for it is a common thing to find its somewhat elaborate nest, and 
often in exposed situations, a favourite location being under the head of the ti ( Cordyline australis). 
There is much variation in nests from different localities, but a very typical example in my 
collection is of a rounded basket-shape, with a thick foundation, measuring four inches across the top, 
with a maximum depth of a little over three inches. It is composed of moss, dry leaves, roots of 
umbelliferous plants, minute fragments of bark and other vegetable substances, compactly bound 
together; and the cup, which is fully an inch and a half in depth, is thickly lined with soft tree-moss. 
Mixed with the building-materials 1 have enumerated are some small tufts of sheep’s wool ; and 
passing right through the wall of the nest, apparently to serve as a support, there is a bent fern-stalk 
nearly six inches long f. 
The eggs, which are generally three in number, but occasionally four, are ovoido-conical, 
measuring -75 inch in length by - 6 in breadth; they are white, with a broad freckled zone of purplish 
brown at the larger end, and with the whole surface dusted or minutely freckled with paler brown ; 
sometimes without the zone, and beautifully speckled all over with various shades of brown. 
*' Professor Ilutton, I believe, still recognizes two species, both of them found in the South Island. In the critical notes 
appended to his ‘ Catalogue ’ (1871) he remarked: — “ Mr. G. It. Gray describes Petroica dieffenbachii as being smaller than 
P. macrocepliaia , and with the yellow on the chest darker ; but of the two species that are found in the South Island it is the 
larger one that has the darker colour on the chest. It is therefore doubtful which of the two is the true macrocepliaia The 
answer to the above is that I have in my possession a series of specimens showing every gradation of colour between the two 
extremes, and that the darkest is likewise the smallest of them all. 
t Mr. W. W. Smith sends me the following note: — “ I have found the nest many times under the head of the cabbage-tree, 
and occasionally in a suspended clump of roots on a clay bank. I have also met with it in thick masses of ‘ bush lawyer.’ In 
1880 I discovered one in a matipo tree fully nine feet from the ground. I have observed considerable difference in the size and 
shape of the nests, some being large and very roughly constructed, others small and highly finished.” Mr. Potts writes : — “ Two 
nests which we presented to the Canterbury Museum wero of remarkable shape : one, a firm compact structure, placed in the forked 
head of a ti tree, resembled a very neat moss basket with a handle across the top ; the second, also from a ti tree, owing, perhaps, 
to the foundation slipping between the leaves, was built up till it reached the great height of sixteen inches. We have found others 
placed on a rock : and one, now in the Colonial Museum, was built between the brace and shingles in the roof of an empty cottage ” 
(Trans. New-Zealaud Inst. 1869, vol. ii. p. 59). In a letter to myself, ho adds the following interesting particulars of two other 
nests found by him : — “ Ho. 1 was built chiefly of sprays of climbing plants, strengthened with grass-bents and a few pieces of split 
ti-palm leaf, lined with moss, as usual. The whole fabric appeared much rougher and more loosely put together than is usually 
the case with the nest of this bird. It was placed in a ti-palm, and contained two well-fledged young birds and three bad eggs. 
No. 2: this nest was composed almost entirely of moss, with a few slender strips of bark fixed to the outside, and ornamented 
inside with a few Parrakeet-feathers ; it was placed on a ledge in a mossy recess among the rocks in dense bush, and contained 
four eggs.” 
g2 
