OCEANIA — WOOD 397 



The vulgar name "bell bird" is given to many quite different 

 species in various parts of the world, but in every instance it is 

 applied because of the resemblance of the bird's call note to the toll- 

 ing of a bell. T have already spoken about the representative of 

 these remarkable animals found in the northern parts of South 

 America and I was naturally on the look out for their Australasian 

 congeners. The New Zealand bird is a honey sucker — Arithorriis 

 melanuror—tilas, fast becoming extinct. It was this remarkable bird 

 that attracted the attention of Captain Cook. On his second voyage 

 while his ship was lying in Queen Charlotte's Sound, the crew heard 

 bird notes " like small bells most exquisitely tuned." On the Austra- 

 lian Continent two species, one also a honey sucker, Manorhina 

 melanojthrys, and another, a shrike-like bird, are called bell birds. 

 Of the former Buller says, " Its notes, though simple, are varied and 

 sweetly chimed, and as the bird is of social habits, the morning 

 anthem, in which scores of the sylvan choristers perform together, 

 is a concert of eccentric parts, producing a wild but pleasing melody. 

 When alarmed or excited they utter a strain of notes which I can 

 compare only to the sound produced by a policeman's rattle quickly 

 revolved. This cry, or the bird catcher's imitation of it, never fails 

 to attract to the spot all the bell birds within hearing." 



One clear day I visited Quarantine Island, Auckland Harbor, as 

 the guest of the chief engineer of the harbor board, Mr. W. H. 

 Hamer, himself a keen and well-informed naturalist. AVe found 

 there many birds that I had no expectation of seeing, among them 

 many bell birds. The ordinary song of the New Zealand species re- 

 sembles that of the parson bird, and while we sat listening to what 

 seemed to me to be a sustained song a discussion took place among 

 the ornithologists present as to whether the avian music we were 

 hearing was that of a tui or not. A portion of the song certainly 

 recalls the notes of a bell, and it has a metallic ring about it that 

 serves to distinguish the call notes of the New Zealand bell bird 

 from the sustained and softer song of the tui, but neither of them 

 in any respect suggests the solemn tolling of the South American 

 bird, with his single though prolonged note. The Australian chorus 

 of performers reminds one of a chime, or of several mingled chimes, 

 of small, silver-tongued bells, while the New Zealand performers 

 make one think of the rendering of a musical number by minor brass 

 instruments. Anthornis Tnelanura is smaller than our robin (male, 

 length, 7.5 inches; female, 6.4 inches)., color generally light yellowish 

 green in the case of the male bird, but this must be modified by 

 stating that the head is. steel-colored, while the tail is brownish black. 

 The female is browner and less conspicuous, but both sexes are 

 equally good singers. 



