98 Bird- Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
Barrier Island as a sanctuary. This was done. Resolution 
Island, on the south-west coast of the South Island, was 
gazetted a sanctuary for birds on 6th August, 1891; Little 
Barrier Island, towards the north of the North Island, on 
26th September, 1895; Kapiti Island, off the North Island in 
Cook Strait, on 31st May, 1900; Motu Ngaro Island, in the 
Marlborough Sounds, on 24th October, 1901. Other reserva¬ 
tions have been made; and the need that urged me to record 
the songs,—the fear that these might be altogether lost with 
the birds,—has almost passed away. The songs may still be 
heard by those who love the birds and their sylvan homes. 
More, the sanctuaries are becoming nurseries from which the 
mainland receives voluntary immigrants, so that there is a hope 
that the chief birds will again increase in numbers. 
The saddle-back. —Black, with the back and wing-coverts 
deep chestnut. Wattle generally orange, but variable between 
red and yellow. Eye dark brown. The sexes are alike, but 
the young is brown, with the lower part of the back dull chest¬ 
nut. Bill and legs black. Total length 10 in., of which the 
tail is 3-J in. 
Eggs. —Three; white, sprinkled with faint purplish marks, 
brownish-purple towards the broad end, almost forming a 
large blotch. Length, a little over an inch; breadth almost 
an inch. 
Nest. —Potts writes (PO, pp. 201-2) :—“For its nesting place 
a hollow or decayed tree is selected, sometimes the top of a 
tree-fern is preferred. The first nest we know of was found 
by an old friend in a hole about four feet from the ground in 
a huge white pine, kahikatea ( Podocarpus dacrydioides) , close 
to the bank of the Ahaura river ; it contained three eggs hard 
set. We found a nest in a dead tree-fern not far from Lake 
Mapourika, Westland. This was of slight construction, built 
principally of fern-root, deftly woven into rather a deep-shaped 
nest with thin walls; as the structure just filled the hollow top 
of the tree-fern, thick walls were unnecessary. Another nest, 
in a small-sized decayed tree in the Okarito bush, was in a hole 
