The Flycatchers 19 
though the shaping of the nest is mostly done by the female. 
The foundation is laid by securing splinters and shreds of 
decayed wood to the slender branch by means of cobwebs, and 
upon this is raised a closely-felted cup of fine grasses, thread¬ 
like roots, dead leaves, and tufts of moss. While building, the 
outside is kept higher than the inside, so that at an early 
stage the nest is saucer-shaped. The materials are well 
trampled, knitted together, and compacted with liberal quan¬ 
tities of spider-web. As the wall rises, the bird, seated in the 
centre, turns round repeatedly, fluttering the wings, pressing 
down the rim with head and chin, pulling the materials towards 
the centre. More and more spider-web is used as the nest 
takes on the cup-shape and nears completion, the result being 
a compact, closely-felted, perfectly round structure, springy 
when pressed between the fingers, beautiful to see. The cup, 
which is about 1^ inches in depth, is lined with fern-down and 
the slender fruit-stalks of moss, but no feathers. 
A nest may be built in four days, though it has been known 
to take seventeen. One nest observed by Potts was begun on 
the 23rd October, finished on the 27th, when it contained one 
egg; there were three eggs on the 29th, and four young 
hatched on the 14th November, the nest being quitted on the 
27th. Thus the building of the nest, laying, incubation, and 
maturing of the young, all took place within a month. 
The female sits very closely on her eggs, maternal instinct 
being then stronger than natural fear. It is recorded that in 
slashing a survey line a branch of tawhara was cut and fell 
to the ground, when it was seen it contained a nest. Although 
it fell upside down the bird was still on the nest, clinging so 
tenaciously that the four eggs were prevented from falling out. 
The bird sat with eyes closed, and after being partly lifted off 
so that the eggs might be counted, it settled down into the 
nest again. The branch was carried out of the way and fixed 
in another tree, in the hopes that, in spite of the inadvertent 
rough usage, the brood might still be reared. The nest has been 
found daintily balanced and fixed on the mid-rib of a tree-fern 
frond. 
