PASSERES. 13 



" The history of this bird from a North-Island point of view is 

 very interesting and suggestive. It appeared on the north side of 

 Cook Strait, for the first time within the memory of the oldest native 

 inhabitants, in the winter of 1856, In the early part of June of that 

 year I first heard of its occurrence at Waiicanae, a native settlement 

 on the West Coast, about forty miles from Wellington. The native 

 mailman brought in word that a new bird had been seen, and that it 

 was a visitor from some other land. A week later he brought intel- 

 ligence that large flocks had appeared, and that the ' tauhou ' 

 (stranger) swarmed in the brushwood near the coast ; reporting further 

 that they seemed weary after their journey, and that the natives had 

 caught many of them alive. Simultaneously with this intelligence 

 I observed a pair of them in a garden hedge in Wellington, and a 

 fortnight later they aj)peared in large numbers, frequenting the gardens 

 and shrubberies both in and around the town. They were to be seen 

 daily in considerable flocks, hurrying forwards from tree to tree, and 

 from one garden to another, with a continuous, noisy twitter. In the 

 early morning a flock of them might be seen clustering together on 

 the topmost twigs of a leafless willow, uttering short plaintive notes, 

 and, if disturbed, suddenly rising in the air and wheeling off with a 

 confused and rapid twittering. When the flock had dispersed in the 

 shrubbery, I always observed that two or more birds remained as 

 sentinels or call-birds, stationed on the highest twigs, and that on the 

 slightest alarm the sharp signal-note of these watchers would instantly 

 bring the whole fraternity together. The number of individuals in a 

 flock, at that time, never exceeded forty or fifty ; but of late years the 

 number has sensibly increased, it being a common thing now to see a 

 hundred or more consorting together at one time. They appeared to 

 be uneasy during, or immediately preceding, a shower of rain, becom- 

 ing more noisy and more restless in their movements. They pro- 

 claimed themselves a blessing by preying on and arresting the progress 

 of that noxious aphis known as ' American blight ' {Schizoneitra 

 lanigera) . They remained with us for three months, and then departed 

 as suddenly as they had come. They left before the orchard-fruits, 

 of which they are also fond, had ripened ; and, having proved them- 

 selves real benefactors, they earned the gratitude of the settlers, while 

 all the local newspapers sounded their well-deserved praises. 



" During the two years that followed the Zosterops was never 

 heard of again in any part of the North Island ; but in the winter of 

 1858 it again crossed the strait, and appeared in Wellington and its 

 environs in greater numbers than before. During the four succeeding 

 years it regularly wintered with us, recrossing the strait on the 



