Axdersex. — -New Zealand Bird-song. 283 



The birds marked * I neither saw nor heard, but I was assured by the 

 caretaker, Mr. J. L. Bennett, to whom I am deeply indebted for consider- 

 ation shown to me whilst on the island, and by Mr. Webber, who resides 

 at the north end of the island, that they are plentiful at times. The two 

 marked f have been introduced, and appear to have established themselves. 

 A longer residence on the island — I was there three weeks — would probably 

 show a large increase in the number of sea-birds ; and the lagoon in the 

 north is visited by ducks, but I saw none whilst there. I saw no live thrush, 

 but found one dead and heard one sing. Goldfinches suddenly appeared, 

 in flocks. Skylarks were there in numbers, and starlings also. On the 

 evening of the 2nd January, 1917, lying on the hillside, my attention was 

 attracted by a moving cloud above Evans Islet* — a small islet off the coast 

 of Kapiti, and lying between it and the mainland. The cloud vanished, 

 and formed, and vanished, like a cloud high in the blue sky of summer, 

 only with swifter transitions. It was a flight of starlings, many hundreds 

 in number, and the cloud formed by the crowded birds appeared and dis- 

 appeared according as they presented an edge or full body as they flew. 

 The unanimity of movement must have been perfect to cause the regular 

 melting and reappearing of the cloud. The birds gather from many 

 quarters on the mainland, and every evening fly in thousands to Evans 

 Islet, passing the night there, and leaving again, flock by flock, in the 

 morning. A similar habit is observed in Britain, but I have seen no note 

 of such nightly haunt, or starlingery, being divided by the sea from their 

 daily resort. Evans Islet is over two miles from the mainland, and is 

 uninhabited and unoccupied. There is another starlingery on the main- 

 land in a plantation of blue-gums close to Paraparaumu, between it and 

 the sea ; and at sunset there is a great clamour of twittering before the 

 birds settle down for the night. I am told that the birds visit Evans 

 Islet nightly during the breeding season also, but not in such great numbers. 

 I was surprised to see not a single sparrow ; but it is quite possible that this 

 bird, and the other finches, may pay occasional visits : they have, indeed, 

 been reported there at various times. 



Fantail. 



I did not see a great number of fantails at Kapiti, but all that I did 

 see were pied. Their song was generally the common whistling song, (15) 

 and (15a), heard about Wellington. The notes of (20) were heard on the 



gva 



etffc EE 



J JrrrmtHt : 



Wf 



/ip f-e fee fee fee hp /<? feea fen? free feea feet? 



10th January, 1917, the phrase being repeated twice or oftener each time 

 it was sung. The high notes may be slurred downwards slightly in the 

 change of vocalization from ee to a in teea, the sound of which was almost 

 dear dear dear. 



White-breasted Tit. 



When I heard the first song I did not see the bird, but the sound was 

 the same as that of the yellow-breasted tit's little plaintive warble. On 



* Maori name, Tokuraapuna : known locally as Toku. 



