THE WHITEHEAD 79 
noticed that in the quartette nests one of the four 
owners acted more or less as warden; but then 
again might not each of the four have taken its 
turn to supervise the vicinity? Again, was 
transference of the food which took place in the 
proximity of the camera due to the greater timidity 
of one sex, or were certain individuals, not neces- 
sarily of the same sex, merely less courageous than 
others ? 
Although in the forest, both at high and low 
elevations, parties of Whitehead were from time 
to time noted, they were few and far between ; 
they were comparatively rare. It was amongst 
the tall groves of kanuka fringing the coast and in 
lower-growing denser shrubberies of manuka that 
these birds were most plentiful. These two species 
of scrub almost exclusively supplied them with 
insect food and nesting material. Orchard and 
garden stocked with alien caterpillars and grubs, 
ordinarily so tempting both to natives and aliens, 
were unvisited by Whitehead. Practically all food 
and all building material were drawn from the 
kanuka thickets. 
The nest of the Whitehead is a fairly sub- 
stantial structure, based on rootlets and small 
rough pliable kanuka twigs; then comes moss, 
frayed grass, sedge, and thin strips of bark, inter- 
mixed sometimes and interwoven with a few 
skeleton leaves from a small group of Lombardy 
