1'Ylton. — Disappearance of Neiv Zealand Birds. 489 



ordinary bird or phantom which they can never see but only hear 

 rushing past them through the air with the rapidity of a falling 

 rock, and making a terrible rushing sound. The Maoris declare 

 that it is a bird possessing many joints in its wings. The whalers 

 call them break-sea devils, after the name of an island where 

 this phenomenon is of most frequent occurrence." I should be 

 glad of further information of this curious habit, which is gene- 

 rally seen and heard at about dusk or sunset, the tuis returning 

 home for the day ending their journey with this wild rush. 

 The tui is reported as " more plentiful " at Rissington than 

 formerly ; " holding his own " at Raglan, Rongotea, Waiheke, 

 Wainui ; " said to be increasing " at Waitotara, Waitohi ; " rare 

 and uncommon " at most other places. 



With the tui is the mocker, or bell-bird, another honey- 

 eater whose food in flax-bush and Pittosporum is lessened by the 

 honey-bee, thrush, and starling. Lovely in its song, as it is 

 modest in its plumage ; nesting in the creepers, where it is 

 hunted by weasels and ferrets and by that curse of bird life, 

 the rat ; fruit which it soon became fond of actually removed 

 from its very beak by the blackbird and sparrow ; the under- 

 growth of native Jsush cleared away ; every tree-crown or 

 festooned totara dotted with a dozen alien nests, and the kori- 

 mako, in its turn, displaced. A weasel has been seen to attack 

 a bell-bird on its nest, and, the two falling to the ground to- 

 gether, the weasel was despatched by the observer; but the 

 bird was fatally injured. In some seasons the bell-bird makes 

 a fresh spurt. In 1905 I heard the notes every day through 

 the winter months, and I took particular notice of it ; then 

 the birds seemed to disappear, and I have not heard the notes 

 of one for the last eighteen months. It was snared in millions 

 by the Natives — their title to land was often proved as an act 

 of ownership by the " snaring of the korimako " — and yet 

 this did not suffice to greatly diminish their numbers. It was 

 left to the pakeha and his pestilential friends to exterminate 

 them. It is pleasant to note that the bell-bird is still " plentiful " 

 at Pipiriki, Raetihi, Pavanui Pa, Stewart Island, all up the 

 West Coast bush, at Banks Peninsula, on Kapiti Island, and on 

 the Barriers ; but where the imported birds are he is almost 

 gone. He is reported as " still existing, though scarce," in 

 many localities throughout both islands. 



Coming to our little white-eye, or tahou, " the stranger," who 

 came from Australia in -1856, and has been with us ever since, 

 once so common in our manuka and on our plum and apple 

 trees, where he took his full share of good things, he is now as 

 rare as he was common. The bird is still fairly common in some 

 parts of the North Island. He is said to " swarm " at the 



