The fourth species to go was the bush wren. An island reserve, pristine as a muttonbird island, was its last outpost. The male rifleman is bright green above while the female is of a more somber brownish tone and her head and back are flecked with ochre. Both birds are white on their under surfaces and have white eyebrow stripes. They have short, rounded wings and a very short tail and a long thin awl-like bill which is slightly upturned for better insertion into cracks.
Females are larger than males.
The literature tells me that the nest may be found in some crevice of bark or hole in a tree, a fissure in a broken branch, or a cranny penetrating dry wood. Guthrie-Smith saw riflemen's nests sealed all around their enclosing cavity with moss and spider web. Other nests are described as so minute as to defy observation. The hen only needs a space of two or three inches in which to lay her four white eggs, the smallest eggs laid by any New Zealand bird, upon a bed of feathers and moss. Both parents feed the chicks.