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VI. 
THE NORTH ISLAND ROBIN. 
Tue Robin of the North and the Robin of the 
South differ little from one another. Both, when 
standing expectant of grub or insect, indulge in 
that curious palsied shake or shiver of the foot— 
a rapid stamp or twitch; both are tame and 
trustful; both make choice of the same type of 
building site ; yet as there are dissimilarities, real, 
though not perhaps specially conspicuous between 
the plumage of the one and other, so there are 
contrasts of a minor kind in the habits of the 
species. 
The North Island Robin, dark above and 
greyish-white below, in size slightly larger than 
the Robin Redbreast of the Old Country, haunts 
in a rather greater degree the interior of woodland 
areas, the heart of the bush where the biggest 
heaviest timber grows—the mighty puriri, the 
magnificent tarairi. He does not eschew its 
