Castings and Nest Contents.

A number of castings and the contents of nests were received, and as explained above, only the bones in these were studied. It is possible that one or two of the castings may belong to the Morepork, not the Little Owl, but the numbers are not large enough to have much effect on the result. As will be seen from Table III, the remains of 82 birds, 16 mice, 6 rabbits and 2 frogs were obtained. Much the commonest bird-remains were those of House Sparrows, of which 36 were recorded, though it is possible, owing to the great similarity between them, that bones of some of the finches have been included among them. The largest collection of nest material, containing 16 sparrows, was collected by Mr Sorensen at Wallacetown, near Inver-cargill. The nest was in the wall of a shed in the middle of stock-yards, and was occupied for several years in succession. Most of the lark or pipit bones come from Patearoa, a tussock district.