Rhipidura fuliginosa, Sparrm. (Black Fantail.)

On a recent visit to Papaitonga, I was much pleased to see a fine specimen of this South Island species in a clump of native bush near the homestead. It was associating with the Pied Fantail, which is particularly numerous in that locality. It was appreciably larger in size, and was in beautiful plumage, the white ear-spots being very conspicuous.

Mr. J. C. McLean, of Gisborne, in the Ibis for January last, gives an interesting account of the interbreeding in that district of a female bird of this species with a male of R. flabellifera. There were two eggs in the nest taken, and Mr. McLean thinks they are richer in colour than the ordinary egg of the Pied Fantail, "the spots being of a purplish tint, while in eggs of the pied bird they are brownish."