83 
heard a loud screaming, and on looking round I observed a great commotion among the birds. I then 
rode down to the bank, and there I saw an enormous eel fastened on to a full-grown Pukeko, which 
was making a strong fight for its life with beak and claws, the others helping when they got a 
chance. They took no notice whatever of me, although I was on horseback within ten yards of them. 
The contest went on for several minutes, and in the end the bird managed to free itself.” 
In January 1881 the following paragraph appeared in a Hawke’s Bay paper : — “A Pukeko dashed 
through the window of a railway carriage the other day, between Kaikoura and Te Ante. The glass 
was a quarter of an inch thick, and the bird was killed by the force of the concussion.” I happened 
to be travelling by the evening train and saw both the broken glass and the dead Pukeko, the author 
of the mischief. 
The spread of this species into districts where it had hitherto been comparatively unknown, and 
its then becoming very abundant, is a very curious fact. Mr. Shrimpton tells me that at Amuri, in 
1861, and at the Hawea Lake, a few years later, they appeared first in small parties and then in 
considerable force, the bird having been previously quite a stranger to that part of the country. The 
increase was too rapid to have been the result of natural breeding, and must have been occasioned by 
a sudden migration from the swamps near the coast. The same thing has happened since at 
Whangarei, in the North Island, as already mentioned. 
It usually breeds in swampy situations, the nest, which is composed of dry grass and flags, being 
in some instances entirely surrounded by water. In the Lake District they are everywhere abundant; 
and there they build their nests on the silica terraces, not in groups or colonies, but singly and without 
much attempt at concealment. In these localities Captain Mair has found as many as fourteen eggs 
in one nest, and eleven in another. Mr. T. H. Potts has described * a nest which he found in a 
swamp by Lake EUesmere as being “ firmly built of leaves of a Carex, and forming a compact mass 
some 8 inches in length, and not very easily to be distinguished, as the material of the nest was as 
green as the surrounding grasses.” Mr. Donald Potts, a son of the former gentleman, has sent me the 
following note : — “ The structure is often raised about a foot in height ; and the young, on being 
disturbed, hide directly they are able to get out of the nest.” The late Sir Julius von Haast informed 
me that he had observed a pair of these birds building their nest on a little pond near Mr. Hill s 
residence, in the Malvern Hills, on the 21st of September, that they brought forth their brood about 
the end of October, and commenced to form a new nest close to the old one about the middle of the 
following month ; and eggs have been collected as late as the 13th of December. We may therefore 
assume that this species is accustomed to breed twice in the season. 
Mr. Owen, of Wangaehu, informs me that he found a nest containing thirteen eggs. According 
to my experience the number of eggs in a nest varies from two to seven ; but five may be considered 
the complement. They are broadly ovoido-conical in form, measuring 2'2 inches in length by 1’5 in 
breadth, and are usually of a pale yellowish brown, spotted and blotched with purplish and reddish 
brown; but while differing slightly from one another in size and form, they present also great 
individual diversity of colouring. The eggs from one nest, however many in number, generally 
preserve a common family likeness, and therefore admit of easy classification. A series of twelve 
specimens in the Canterbury Museum exhibits the following varieties of character : — A set of four 
(presumably from one nest) are of a pale greyish brown, marked over their whole surface with rounded 
spots of purplish brown ; another set of four are of a warmer yellowish-brown tint, and more thickly 
studded with dark spots, especially at the larger end : a specimen showing a very narrow form has the 
entire surface covered with minute round spots, very equally distributed ; another has the thick end 
blotched with dark purplish grey, as though the colours had been partially washed out; and another. 
M 2 
* Trans. N.-Z. Inst. 1870, vol. iii. p. 102. 
