502 Transactions. 



The time at my disposal on the island was drawing to a close 

 before I saw a stitch-bird (Pogonornis cincta, Maori hihi). Two 

 days previous to my departure I was given the privilege of an 

 interview. I was one of a party of five or six. We were on our 

 way to the Heri-Kohu Peak, and at noon, when we were walk- 

 ing along a bushy track, a stitch-bird, which had come down 

 from the heights, flitted about in an excited manner on the 

 boughs above our heads. When its cry was imitated it came 

 closer, and flew among some saplings, uttering a cry which might 

 be written " steech, steech," repeated quickly several times. 

 The bird was a female. She ran along the boughs, carrying 

 her tail erect, at almost a right angle with her body, and her 

 wings drooping. She turned round several times, and was the 

 very embodiment of motion. Her cry hardly ceased, and there 

 were very few moments when she took her black eyes off us. 

 We saw seven stitch-birds on that occasion. They were all 

 females. This is rather strange, as the female is described by 

 several naturalists as being specially shy and retiring. The :,t tch- 

 birds I saw on the Little Barrier were very tame. They had 

 no fear, and even when a stone was thrown into the trees on 

 which they alighted, they only flitted off to another bough. 

 The locality which they favour with their presence most is in 

 the north of the island. The haunt can be visited only with 

 great difficulty and inconvenience. There these birds are 

 numerous, and as many as fifteen have been counted at one 

 time. 



I saw a good deal of the white-breasted tits, which came 

 near my tent every morning and gave me many opportunities 

 for watching them as they flitted about in the low scrub. They 

 have a peculiar method of alighting on a tree. The tits seem 

 to be utterly devoid of fear, and they make close friends with 

 all visitors to the island. 



I saw many other native birds. Tuis are present in large 

 numbers. The two migratory cuckoos — the long-tailed cuckoo 

 (Urodynamis taitiensis) and the shining cuckoo (Cha/cococcyx 

 lucidus) — come regularly in their seasons, and depart again 

 for their other homes across the sea. In the summer the long- 

 tailed cuckoo's note may be heard at almost any time of the 

 day, and also at night. I have heard the loud, shrill, and pierc- 

 ing " whirrt, whirrt," continued for nearly a quarter of an 

 hour, ringing out over the gorges at intervals of from six to 

 twenty seconds. 



I did not hear the " song of dawn " on the Little Barrier 

 in its perfection. It can be heard at its best only in the spring, 

 and the time of my visit was too late in the season. In the 

 spring months, as soon as the dawn appears, all the birds burst 



