Note 5 — A SOUTHERN CROSS FAIRY TALE.

Pied Fantail. Piwakawaka (Rhipidura flabellifera.)—A small fly-catcher; plumage greyish brown. While busily engaged catching mosquitos or sand flies, these birds steer with their fan-shaped tails, making fantastic evolutions in the air. When a fantail has spied out with its big black eyes the hiding place of the owl, in the daytime it will call its mates together and show them the spot where their enemy dwells, and then all the birds dart at the owl, and fly round and round, annoying it in every possible manner until they chase it away.—A. R.