Breeding Successes in New Zealand



25



aviaries on 6th October, 1935. In one enclosure were yellow Kowhai

blossoms. The birds immediately started sucking the nectar and

apparently eating a small amount of the pollen, while, in another

enclosure, the Sugar Birds taught a pair of Griraud’s Orioles how to

obtain nectar and pollen from apple blossoms and, incidentally, to so

damage the flowers that there were not many apples that year.


The Sugar Birds were fed on the usual Sun-bird mixture, prepared

soft-bill food as used for Shamas, and a variety of soft fruit in season,

grapes, oranges, pears, and bananas being the principal fruits used,

with occasionally soaked seedless raisins and a piece of paw-paw T when

it was available. Sunlight, fresh air, plus food and exercise wmrked

wonders with the birds and, after approximately twelve months’

captivity in comparatively confined quarters in Panama, on board

ship, in Mr. Sydney Porter’s bird-rooms, and again on board ship

coming out to New Zealand, the birds were in really good condition.


On Sunday, 17th November, 1935, the hen was observed playing

with a piece of string as though nesting-inclined. However, the cock

bird was not yet in full breeding condition with turquoise blue crest

and deep blue body colouring. On Thursday, 26th December, 1935,

the hen Sugar Bird was playing with soft white feathers, taking one

in her beak and flying about with it. On Saturday, 28th December,

she commenced picking up lengths of horsehair, and several were w oven

into a fork of the living tea-tree shrub growing alongside the path in

the aviary, the commencement of the nest being situated about 10 inches

beneath the top of this rather dense-growing shrub.


These few horsehairs were left in the fork for about a day, but on

Tuesday, 31st December, a nest about 2J inches in diameter was made

composed entirely of horsehair. The shape was much more spherical

than many other birds’ nests and the edges were decidedly incurving.

The walls w r ere thin at the incurved tip, but gradually thickened to

the base, although the texture was so open that the contents were

always visible through the sides of the structure. The nest seemed to

be hung by horsehairs fastened on to one prong of the fork through

the nest and, though resting its weight on the wood, it was really

secured in position by these stays of horsehair tying the nest to other

portions of the shrub. The fork, therefore, was used as a support into

which to weave a nest, and not as a foundation on which to secure it.



