THE STITCHBIRD 61 
in food, and both doubtless assisting in the sanita- 
tion of the nest. Usually one bird enters about 
the time the other leaves. Sometimes both are 
away together; sometimes both are in the hole 
simultaneously. When that happens, when the 
female is within, her presence can always be 
inferred from the diffident hesitancy of the male 
when about to enter. Of the two parents the hen 
is the more anxious and careful. 
During ten weeks’ sojourn on the island, except 
on three occasions no indication whatever was 
afforded of courtship, of nesting, or of the rearing 
of the young. These three occasions the reader 
will remember were firstly, the hen seen to be 
carrying a billful of tree-fern scale; secondly, 
the proffer to the hen of a berry; and thirdly, 
the carriage of a small grub or caterpillar. The 
nests of most birds carefully watched can be 
located by activity in conveyance of building 
material. The Stitchbird gives no such clue: 
one nest serves for years, the site of the nest 
for scores of years, perhaps for centuries, for who 
can tell the permanence of a rift or a chink in a 
giant puriri? The nest year by year is merely 
repaired and renovated—renovated, moreover, with 
material procurable from every yard of the island. 
At a later period again®no clue is given. Nests 
of most species can be found by food supplies 
