Identifier: animalsofnewzeal00hutt (find matches)
Title: The animals of New Zealand; an account of the dominion's air-breathing vertebrates
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Hutton, Frederick Wollaston, 1836-1905 Drummond, James, 1869-1940
Subjects: Zoology Birds
Publisher: Christchurch, N. Z., Whitcombe and Tombs
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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econdaries. The babblingthrush (Timelia) of India, forms the type of this family, butit is made to include other Old-world forms. It is not found inAmerica. Genus SpJienaeacus.Bill short, higher than broad at the nostrils; no mouth bristles.Tip of the wing formed by the fourth and fifth feathers. Tailfeathers ten, long, graduated, with spiny shafts and loose webs.South Africa and New Zealand. Key to the Species. 1. Throat white. S. rufescens.Throat spotted. 2 2. Darker and smaller. S. j)unctatusLighter and larger. S. fulvus. The Fern-bird.—^NIatata and Toetoe. tiplienaeacus punctatus. Above, fnlvous-browu; forehead rufous with a black streak in the middle of each feather; a pale streak from the nostrils over each eye. Below white, spotted with black; tinged with fulvous on the flanks 96 THE ANIMALS OF NEW ZEALAND and abdomen. Ej^e black. Length of the wing 2.3 in.; of the tarsus, 0.8in Egg—White, speckled all over with violet and greyish red; length 0.8in. Both islands. Fern-Bird.
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Cbatbain Island Fern-Bird. The fern-bird, as its name implies, frequents ferny lands. )Mr. H. Guthrie-Smith of Tutira, Hawkes Bay, who has seen this .l)ird on his estate, says that it is generally a shy bird; but, in spring, the male seems to lose a great deal of his timidity, and. THE CHATHAM ISLAND FERN-BIRD 97 regardless of the presence of man, will mount to the top of a flaxstick, climbing up with little runs, like a mouse or house-fly, histail being bent in towards the stem. This species has been called the grass-bird, and also the utick,on account of its peculiar cry. As early as 1870, Mr. Pottsrecorded the fact that the bird was becoming rare in Canterbury,and was rapidh^ disappearing as the swamps were drained. Itsmonotonous note, which at one time was heard in almost anyplace where the tall toi-toi reeds or the waving leaves of theCarex virgata grow, indicates marshy ground. Being feeblefliers, these birds perished in large numbers in the bush fireswhen lands were cleared by

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