Note 12 — A SOUTHERN CROSS FAIRY TALE.

Maori Hen. Weka. (Ocydromus earli.)—A bird rather smaller than a common hen; plumage brown. It is the most inquisitive, cunning, and mischievous of all the New Zealand birds. During the day it hides in burrows or in thick scrub, from which, however, it emerges as soon as it hears any unusual noise; it then hides behind a log, stone, or tree-root, whence it watches all proceedings, calling to its mate with a booming noise. Any small, bright article, such as a knife, watch, or bunch of keys laid aside, the Maori hen will at once pick up and carry off with delight to its hiding place. When near a farm-house, this bird, as soon as it hears a domestic hen cackle, will watch its opportunity to run to the place and carry off the egg she has laid, to eat it at leisure. In the forest the Maori hens watch the birds building their nests in order to steal their eggs. If a young bird or a rat is not sufficiently on the alert, it will be seized at once and devoured, or should a lizard or a grub cross their path, or a fish come too near the shore, they seldom escape the eye of these vigilant birds. When chased by a dog the Maori hen will run into its hole and slip out by another opening, and, screened perhaps by a bush or fern, will watch the dog digging for it.—A. R.