THE SADDLEBACK 159 
hole. The trunk was, moreover, densely thatched 
in matted polypod, whose erect fronds filtered 
such light as might still penetrate to the incubating 
bird. The orifice of a fourth nest opened into a 
cranny in a sound green tupari only a few inches 
above the peat. The entrance to this nest was 
unusually constricted, and the structure within 
almost invisible. The fifth nest, also in deep 
shade, was built into an open flax kit suspended 
from a nail fastened to an upright board in a 
Maori hut. 
_ Each of the sites described contained, during 
November, eggs or young. An additional pair of 
nests, but in which no eggs had been laid at the 
time of our departure, were also obtained in tree 
cavities low to the ground. Guarding each of 
these unfinished nests was a traverse bar: in the 
one case a strip of sound dead stuff, in the other 
a stiff finger of living wood. It would seem, 
therefore, that the site nearest to the Saddleback’s 
ideal is one low to the ground, deeply shaded, 
and if possible protected with aerial rootlets or 
splinters of hard, dry, seasoned timber. 
The outermost materials of the nest consist of 
rootlets and portions of fronds of aspidium aculea- 
tum, the latter so affected by exposure and age 
as to be easily tweaked into the desired circular 
form. On this rough base and outer edging rest 
quantities of narrow grass-tree leaves; on them 
