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lives in the bush, and only emerge once in a week or fortnight to get stores from some central point 
whither the trader brings them on a pack-horse. The well-trained dog of the gold-digger is perhaps 
the most destructive agent as regards the Kakapo and Kiwi. The felling and clearing of forests and 
the consequent diminution in the supply of honey-producing flowers will account to some extent for 
the present scarcity of the Bell-bird and the Tui. But, as you have already pointed out, the chief 
factor in this work of extermination is no doubt the introduced rat, which now exists in immense 
numbers over the whole extent of the west coast, from the gold-diggers’ townships to the remote bush- 
covered ranges. Added to all these potent causes, I have no doubt that, owing to the changed con- 
ditions under which they exist, and the more scanty supply of food, disease in various forms contributes 
to the general sum of destruction.” 
Fam. STUMID^ . — The Saddle-back ( Creadion cctrunculatus), which was extremely common 
in all suitable localities fifteen to twenty years ago, has now disappeared from the North Island, and 
is becoming scarce in the South, although both this and the allied species ( C . cinereus) are still 
plentiful on certain small islands in the Hauraki Gulf. Professor Hutton was the first to discover the 
nest of this bird on the Little Barrier Island, where he found it lodged in the hollow stem of a 
tree-fern. 
The accompanying figure appeared in the ‘Transactions of the New-Zealand Institute’ (vol. v. 
pi. 17), together with the following descriptive notes by Mr. Potts: — 
“ For its nesting-places a hollow or decayed tree is usually selected ; sometimes the top of a tree-fern is preferred. The 
first nest wo knew of was found by an old friend in a hole about four feet, from the ground in a huge white pine ( Podocarpus 
dacrydioides), close to the bank of the Ahaura river ; it contained three eggs hard-set. We found a nest in a dead tree-fern not far 
from Lake Mapourika, Westland. This was of slight construction, built principally of fern-roots, deftly woven into rather a deep- 
shaped nest with thin walls ; for as the structure just filled the hollow top of the tree-fern thick walls were unnecessary. 
Another nest (the one figured), found in a small-sized decayed tree in the Okarito bush, was in a hole not more than three feet 
from the ground. It was roughly constructed, principally of fibres and midribs of decayed leaves of the kiekie ( Freycinetia 
banlcsii), with a few tufts of moss, leaves of rimu, lined with moss and down of tree-ferns ; it measured across from outside to 
outside of wall 12 inches 6 lines, the cavity 3 inches in diameter with a depth of 2 inches.” 
Fam. SYLVim®. — When I was engaged on my former edition, Mr. T. H. Pelts sent me a 
large series of pen-and-ink sketches of nests which he had collected at various times, all executed by 
himself and exhibiting the characteristics of each in a very happy manner. These were afterwards 
published in illustration of that gentleman’s “ Notes on the breeding-habits of New-Zealand Birds,” 
