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cow-hair, the downy seed-vessels of plants, and other soft materials, and the whole is admii'ably 
bound together with fine spiders’ webs. The interior cavity, which is rather large in proportion 
to the nest, is closely lined with fibrous grasses, or bents, disposed in a circular form. I have 
examined numbers of nests, and I have observed that the materials employed vary slightly, according 
to the locality, specimens collected in the vicinity of farmhouses disclosing tufts of wool, fragments 
of cloth, remnants of cotton-thread, &c. among the building-materials ; nevertheless, in every instance 
that has come under my notice, the use of spiders’ webs for binding the walls has been adhered to, 
thus manifesting a very decided instinct. The eggs are usually four in number, slightly ovoido- 
conical, and measuring ‘7 of an inch in length by - 5 in breadth ; they are white, with numerous 
purplish-brown freckles, denser and forming an obscure zone towards the larger end. 
Mr. J. H. Gurney (‘Ibis,’ 1860, p. 212), in his account of the Red-throated Widow-bird ( Vidua 
rubritorgues, Swains.), says : — “ These birds build amongst the grass in the open country. The nest is 
curiously built ; they select a convenient tuft of grass, and interlace the blades as they stand, without 
breaking them off; so that the nest is green during the whole time of incubation, and is very 
beautiful when thus seen.” This brings to my recollection a very pretty nest of the Pied Fantail 
which I found in the Kaipara woods many years ago. It was smaller and more cup-shaped than the 
generality of these nests, and was composed chiefly of moss firmly bound together with spiders’ webs ; 
but it was an ct old nest,” and the winter rains had soaked it, causing the moss to vegetate afresh ; 
and when it came into my hands it was covered on the outer surface with a luxuriant growth of 
stunted moss of the brightest green, and presented a very beautiful appearance. 
To any one having any experience of bird-craft, it is very easy to discover the nest of this species. 
The movements of the old birds, properly interpreted, are a very sure index. As you approach the 
nest, the Fantails, which follow your steps with an incessant twitter, become ominously silent. If 
you fail immediately to discover the object of your search, and chance to wander away from it, the 
anxious little birds give vent to their joy by an exuberant strain of notes, which, as I have often 
thought, might be appropriately compared to the supposed merry laugh of one of Gulliver’s 
Liliputians*. On one occasion I succeeded in capturing the old bird on the nest, which was found to 
contain four unfledged young ones. I placed my captive in a cage, together with the nest and 
young : she refused food, and vented her rage by pecking her young ones to death. On the following 
morning I liberated the parent, regretting much that I had invaded her domestic happiness. 
Ihe multiplication of numbers by second broods, in the proportion of four to one, as already 
noticed, appears to me a wise provision of Nature to save the species from extinction. At the close 
of the breeding-season the Fantails, principally in the immature plumage, are excessively abundant ; 
by the end of the year their numbers have been considerably thinned, owing to the joint ravages of 
the wild cat, the Bush-IIawk, and Morepork, to all of which this defenceless little creature falls an 
easy prey. The reproduction by each pair of eight young ones every season seems, therefore, almost 
necessary to preserve the very existence of this species in the balance of life. 
Long may the Pied Fantail thrive and prosper, in the face of cats, owls, naturalists, and the 
whole race of depredators ; for without it our woods would lack one of their prettiest attractions, 
and our fauna its gentlest representative ! 
* In one of the Maori legends we are told that the great ancestor Maui-Potaka, whose ordinary companions were a flock of 
Piwaiwaka, was betrayed by this “ laugh ” when eating up the body of Hinenuitepo and was forthwith killed. The myth relates 
how these little birds could contain themselves no longer, and when Hincnuitepo’s head and shoulders had disappeared down 
Mani-Potaka’s throat “they danced about and laughed,” a pretty allusion to the habits of the Fantail. 
