Page 7 Advertisements Column 2

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7143, 14 February 1930, Page 7

MAORI NATURE NOTES (Specially written for the “Manawatu Daily Times”) [Copyright J.H.S.] IRO MIRO (swirling, twisting). Perhaps because he is so small, he is commonly known as the tit or tomtit. Small beak and black head, with a white spot between the eyes and on each wing. They seem to be perpetually at play, and the favourite game is a sham fight. They fly swiftly through the branches with feathers along the neck standing out like a ruff, as if in real anger. Suddenly they cease play to rub their bills together in friendy caress. When real cause for a quarrel comes, they fight like angry sparrows, rolling over each other on the ground, when they may be picked up still fighting. As with humans, the cause is probably a fickle sweetheart. They build lovely little feather-lined nests, or rather the mother bird does, for the lordly little husband looks on and incessantly encourages her with “Cheep, cheep, cheep.” They build anywhere, on a tree or a fence, or under the eaves of a house.