78 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
former only once, towards Rimu in Westland, and have not 
heard its song. I saw the bird as I passed in the coach, and 
it uttered once the slurred note of (1), whose sound was very 
like the familiar 11 sweet ’ 7 of the cage canary. 
ev* 
Of the twenty-two Maori names recorded for these two birds 
(WJ, p. 198), those at the head are the ones commonly used. 
The brown creeper.— Head, back, and tail, reddish-brown; 
sides of the head and nape dark grey; under surface fawn. 
Lateral feathers of the tail with a broad brown spot. Eye 
grey. The sexes are alike; the young are darker below. Some 
of the birds from the West Coast have a white eyebrow. Bill 
and feet pale brown. Total length 5J in., of which the tail is 
2i in. 
Eggs.— 1 Three; white, with small purplish and brown spots, 
which run together and form a zone round the larger end. 
Length, almost | in., breadth a little over | in. 
Nest .—Has rarely been seen; one found by Potts in a black 
beech ( Fagus ), about seven feet from ground; composed of 
dry vegetable fibres, fragments of wool, moss, spiderweb, and 
other soft materials closely felted together. Entrance in side 
about a third of the way from the top, the aperture being 
perfectly round with smooth edges. 
The brown creeper is, like the white-head, a gregarious bird, 
moving about in little flocks of from five to twelve. Its song is 
longer than that of most of the New r Zealand birds, though it is 
not so much sung. The little flocks move among the lower trees, 
between six and twenty feet above the ground, searching and 
feeding silently for a time, then suddenly breaking into merry 
song; and they act in concert; all are silent, or all sing. 
The strain is composed of several distinct parts, of which 
some are interchangeable; (d) or ( e ) might take the place of 
(fr y I ortions only of the strain may be sung, but I have 
