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month, and, as I would not allow them to be molested, returned on several successive days. They 
disappeared together, and I did not see them afterwards, although fondly hoping that they would breed 
with us, and that this pretty bird might become at length fairly acclimatized in the North Island. 
Several more instances of its occurrence in the North Island, in the year following, have come to 
my knowledge. Major Mail’ recorded a second example from the Pirongia ranges in the Waikato; 
another was seen by Mrs. Howard Jackson in the shrubbery at Major Marshall’s, near Rangitikei ; 
and another was reported from Auckland. Of the last-mentioned Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, the 
Curator of the Auckland Museum, writes to me : — “ You will be interested to hear that a solitary 
individual of the Black Fantail has been repeatedly seen near Auckland this winter. It was first 
noticed by Mr. James Baber in his garden at Remuera; afterwards it visited Mr. Hay’s nursery-garden, 
where it remained for some weeks ; and it has since been noticed about several of the residences at 
Remuera. I was fortunate enough to see it one evening when walking home, and can consequently 
vouch for its being the South Island species. Its occurrence so far to the north is certainly very 
remarkable.” 
Mr. Colenso, F.R.S., informs me that he met with one, in February 1882, at Napier; and to 
Mr. Leonard Reid, the Assistant Law Officer at Wellington, I am indebted for the following note : — 
“ It may interest you to know that I met with a specimen on the Pukerua Range near Pauatahanui, 
when out shooting there in May 1883, in company with two residents of the district who had never 
seen a Black Fantail before. We tried hard to secure it alive, but though, like its northern con- 
gener, it was remarkably tame and fearless, our efforts were unsuccessful. We observed none others 
of either species in the same locality, and though a frequent visitor to the bush in various parts of 
this district I have never observed its occurrence on any other occasion ” *. 
A very interesting phase of character exhibited by this species is that, in its wild state, it asso- 
ciates and interbreeds with the Pied Fantail ( Bhipidura flabellifera), as represented in the Plate. 
There is a nest of this sort in the Canterbury Museum, containing three eggs. It was taken, 
in October 1870, by Mr. Potts, who informed me that the female was a dark bird and the 
male a pied one f . In another case of intercrossing which came under his notice the relative 
position of the sexes was reversed, the female being B. flabellifera : the eggs proved to be fertile, 
and the young assumed the plumage of the female parent. 
On the nesting-habits generally he has furnished me with the following interesting note : — “ To 
my view, the most remarkable feature in the breeding-habits of our Flycatchers is the situation usually 
selected for rearing their young. Security does not appear to be the first consideration; security by 
concealment seems the leading feature which guides most arboreal birds in choosing the site of their 
home, and it is one in which the most admirable displays of instinct may be frequently observed. 
The Flycatchers rather appear to be led by the same consideration which actuates many sea-birds 
in selecting the position of their breeding-place — proximity to the food supply. Stroll carefully 
along the rocky bed of a creek which rambles through some bushy gully, and you may perchance see 
the beautiful nest perched on some slender bough, in so delicate a manner that it appears scarcely so 
much to be fixed as to rest balanced there, and without any attempt at concealment.” 
The eggs of this species are of similar size and shape to those of the Pied Fantail, but I have 
remarked that they usually have a darker zone of purple and brown spots. 
* Mr. Hamilton writes : — “ I obtained a specimen of this bird in the Pohue Bush, about 20 miles north of Napier, July 7, 
1885. 1 have seen it occasionally nearer Napier. In 1876 I got two or three in the Horokiwi district, near Wellington.” 
(Trans. N.-Z. Inst. vol. xviii. p. 125.) 
t Writing of another, exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society in November 1884, he says : — “ Before I removed it, I 
saw both parent birds undertake the duties of incubation in turn, relieving each other at brief intervals. The cock bird was 
It- fuliginosa, with the aural plumes very small but quite distinct ; the hen, It. flabellifera , occupied the nest till gently pushed 
off with the finger.” 
L 
