20 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
Some variations in details of shape have been found, and a 
nest may be added to when once apparently completed. A 
curious characteristic sometimes seen is the ornamentation of 
the nest by the attaching by means of cobwebs of fragments of 
decayed wood to the base of the nest: this forms a tassel that 
sways in every breeze. 
A nest obtained from Muritai, near Wellington, was built 
on an almost horizontal branch of mahoe (whitewoocl), and 
partly around the smaller upward-springing branchlets. The 
foundation and a little more than a third of the lower part of 
the nest is composed of yellow decayed wood mixed with a 
little moss, consolidated with hanks of spiderweb; the upper 
part is moss and fine grass-bents, with occasional shreds of 
wood, all very firmly and evenly woven, compacted and felted 
with spiderweb: the cup is lined with tree-fern down, dark 
brown in colour. The measurements are :—Inside of cup, 1J in. 
across, 1£ in. deep: whole nest, outside, 2| in. across, 2\ in. 
from branch to edge of cup, pendant of decayed wood 2\ in. 
long. 
In the season of 1921 I received a double nest, found by the 
school-children of Wellsford School, North Auckland. The two 
nests aie built close together, one common wall dividing them; 
both aie set at an angle, the common central wall being higher 
than the outer walls. The whole nest is very compact and neat. 
The foundation is as that of the above-described nest—yellow 
decayed wood and a little moss; the sides are of moss, pale 
yellow, brown, and pale greenish, a few shreds of grass-blades, 
and small coprosma leaves, all as before closely and neatly 
felted with spiderweb. The cup is lined with fine grass-bents, 
the under layers bowed across the cup from side to side, the 
covering layers round it, circling parallel with the edge: these 
bents help to give the pronounced springiness to the nest. The 
measurements are:—Inside of cup, If in. across, If in. deep; 
whole nest, outside, cup 3 in. across, 5-J in. across the two nests, 
central height, at angle where both join, 3-J in. 
It is not known if the nests were occupied by two, three, or 
foui birds; the nest was blown down before the lining of the 
