19 
l' ' amusing to watch the male bird waltzing round his spouse with his back arched and 
long red bhl pointing to the ground. 
which I ® Hotel, Waipawa, I was interested in seeing a perfectly tame bird of this species, of 
for about • ^ ^ ^ following note : It is a young bird, and has been in the possession of the landlord 
Duck ( ^onths, frequenting the open paddock, and consorting alternately with a tame Paradise 
of Blacl^^S ^ favourite) and a flock of Domestic Geese. Sometimes it associates with a pair 
hardly e ’ ®®6ms rather indifferent to their companionship. It can fly with facility, but 
with all the paddock except to enter the fowl-yard, where it appears to be on perfect terms 
to brino- ’t ^ occupants. Eegularly every morning it comes to the gate and Avaits for the gardener 
grass a meat, and having partaken of this it spends its time strutting about the 
of the day ^or the worms and grubs upon which it subsists for the rest 
The only cry I heard it utter was a call like ‘ Phillipic ’ in a high key. 
have de occurrence to see this species paired Avith the Pied Oyster-catcher. I 
tends to CO fi ^ what I take to be the hybrid result of such a union. Further observation only 
in the indet I have seen a dimorphic pair followed by two young birds, both of them 
by a single black-and-white plumage, and I have more than once seen a black bird followed 
hybrid mo ^ ®ame parti-coloured garb. On several occasions I have seen a similar 
the case of Pronounced, Avith a group of black ones. It would seem from this that, as in 
offsTn-inn. • i black Rhipiclurm, which often breed together, the general tendency in the 
ohspnng is to follow the former of these types. 
the birds havii^^*^^^'*^ sonson appioaches the little groups are no longer met Avith on the ocean-beaches, 
parts of Prrned and gone off to their nesting-grounds on rocky islands or in the less frequented 
beaches betw^^'^^W account for their almost total disappearance from the well-travelled 
The ' ellington and Wanganui during the spring and early summer months. 
Burimu Kock^*^ usually quit the nest early in December, but I have found bii;ds breeding on the 
the old bird^ b T January, the young at this time being fully fledged and following 
parents evincecT capturing one of the latter it uttered a feeble squeak, and the 
Qq solicitude by flying in circles overhead with an excited cry of Iceria, Iceria *. 
backs in apnar being invaded the old birds feign lameness, or roll and tumble over on their 
chicks lookino-T order to entice intruders aAvay from their nesting-ground, whilst the doAvny 
and on reachino’ expressed it) “like little boys in night-gowns,” make a bee-line for the sea, 
take to the ro k swim out into deep Avater. If unable to reach the sea they 
danger has passe ^ ^^iJer the projecting ledges, hiding themselves in the crevices till all 
length by F5 j n . ™ sons collection is ovoido-conical in shape, measuring 2'25 inches in 
black and dark b ^ greenish white thickly and irregularly spotted and smeared with inky 
scope of varietv i tb^^ washed-out markings of the usual kind interspersed. But there is a wide 
surroundino-s • for ^ maikings, these being, in a very perceptible manner, adapted to the 
lighter in colour Eunmu Eocks, the eggs that Avere deposited on the white sand Avere 
Jrift seaweed abov h’ markings on their surface ; those found in nests placed among the 
in the manner described maik, or among the rocks, were much darker and more or less blotched 
* The Key. ^ Colens F 
indicates bj a difference i V writes . “ The Maoris believe that this bird knows of an approaching storm, which he 
iiimself) before a storm « ^ ^ ’ ®^Ting Jeeria, Jeeria (dig, dig , — L e, for shell-fish out of the sand, by the waves, as food for 
storm, and tolmi, tokia after one.- 
D 2 
