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again saw the bird, and noticed that the lores were becoming tinged with yellow, while the colour of 
the legs had deepened. Unfortunately, at this stage she was found dead on the floor of the aviary ; 
and on dissection I found in the cavity of the back an amazing number of parasitical worms, many 
of them measuring from six to eight inches in length. A wild specimen, which I afterwards examined, 
was similarly afflicted. 
The result of my observations is, that the Bush-Hawk attains the mature livery during the 
second year, the plumage being liable to some slight variations as the bird gets older. The irides 
had undergone very little perceptible change at the time of the bird’s death, but the eyes were 
large and somewhat sparkling. 
This bird, a stranger to liberty from the very nest, had become quite attached to its aviary. It 
never attempted to escape when the door was accidentally left open ; and on one occasion when it 
did get out it remained perched on the dome of its house, and voluntarily re-entered it. It partook 
readily of all kinds of meat, cooked or raw, although preferring the latter. Beef, pork, or mutton 
were alike acceptable ; but a preference was always shown for birds. On a live bird being offered to 
it, the Hawk would eye its quarry intently for a short time and then make a sudden swoop upon it, 
seizing with the talons of one or both feet, according to the size and strength of the object. It would 
then proceed cautiously to destroy life by crushing the head of its victim in its powerful beak, only 
relaxing its hold when life was quite extinct. While thus employed, its eyes were full of animation, 
and its whole body quivered with excitement. 
A pair of these birds bred for two successive seasons on a rocky crag at Niho-o-te-kiore. They 
guarded their nest with great vigilance, fiercely attacking all intruders ; and on both occasions 
brought up their brood in safety. 
The description of the male is taken from a fine specimen shot in the Karori Hills, near 
Wellington, in 1859, and of which I sent, at the time, a descriptive notice to the Lmnean Society. 
Its much smaller size led me to suppose that it was distinct from Harpa nova? zealandice ; and it 
was not then known that Mr. Gould’s H. brunnea was founded on an immature example. That such 
was really the case is sufficiently proved by the account given in the foregoing pages, and previously 
recorded in the Transactions of the New-Zealand Institute (1868, vol. i. p. 106). 
The eggs resemble those of H. nova? zealandice , but are somewhat smaller and lighter in colour. 
There are three examples in the Canterbury Museum, differing in the details of their colouring ; but 
they may be defined as yellowish brown, stained and mottled with reddish brown, and having a rather 
soiled appearance. In one of them the blotched character is more apparent at the smaller end ; in 
another it is equally dispersed, while in the third the dark brown markings present a smudgy character 
over the whole surface. They measure 1*9 inch in length by l - 45 in breadth. 
In the same fine collection there is a beautiful specimen of the Bush-Hawk’s egg from the 
Chatham Islands. It is of a rich or warm reddish brown, freckled and slightly smudged with darker 
brown, presenting a close resemblance to the Merlin’s egg, broadly ovoido-comcal m form, and 
measuring 1*95 inch by 1‘5 inch. There is another egg of the same species, from Pannga River 
(South Westland), differing very perceptibly in being of a dull cream-colour, freckled and stained 
all over with brown. It is of the same size as the Chatham-Islands specimen, but is slightly more 
oval in form. _ , , 
A specimen brought by Mr. Reischek from Martin’s Bay, in the South Island, measures U8 
inch in length by 1*6 in breadth, being of a regular ovoid form ; the whole surface is pale reddish 
brown, blackish brown, and cream-colour mixed together in an irregular way, being decidedly daiker 
at the larger end, and the light markings at the smaller end having the appearance of abrasions or 
scratches on the surface. The nest from which it was taken was placed in the leafy crown of a high 
forest tree. 
