^6 M'Lean, Bush-Birds of New Zealand. [ 



Emu 

 2nd Oct. 



To those who are in touch with the bush of the North Island 

 the Pied Tit is probably the best known of our native birds. In 

 the rougher, unimproved fern country, when patched with bush 

 and scrub or broken by rocky gorges draped in ferns and moss 

 and fringed with shrubs, it is plentiful enough ; but when the 

 settler comes, and fern gives way to grass, and only a few of the 

 larger trees escape the fires, it disappears. But should some 

 patch of bush be preserved a few Tits will make it their home 

 and daily wander in its vicinity. In many of what are now 

 "bush districts" in name only it is seldom seen, and the one or 

 two I have noticed on the cultivated plains could only be lost 

 birds ; in their actions, too. they seemed to know that they were 

 out of place. Nevertheless, I think we can safely predict that, 

 so long as some of our larger bushes remain, there is no fear of 

 its extinction. It is essentially a bird of the native bush ; and it 

 seems to the writer that there is something of vital consequence 

 to the Tit in the rotting timber of our woods, which ensures the 

 rearing of its young, and it can never accept the change to 

 exotic trees. But why ? The domestic economy of the Tit, the 

 Warbler, and the Fantail is very similar, and each is purely 

 insectivorous ; but I feel certain of this : that when the logs and 

 stumps of the mountain slopes have all decayed away, the 

 Fantail and the Warbler will still be there, but the Pied Tit, 

 once their superior in battle, will have disappeared. 



Explanation of Music Plate. 



Fig. i.^Pied Tit (Peirceca toitoi). — Spring song or trill. 



Fig. 2. — Whitehead (Clitonyx alhicapilla). — Spring trill. 



Fig. 3. — Bell-Bird {AvJhornis melanura). — Characteristic chime. 



Figs. 4, 5. — Bell-Bird (Anthornis melanura). — Common chime. 



Fig. 6. — Bell-Bird (Anthornis melanura). — Reiterated note. 



Fig. 7. — Bell-Bird (Anthornis melanura). — A chime. 



Fig. 8. — Tui (Prosthemadera novcs-zealandice). — Dominant note, re- 

 peated in measured sequence. 



Fig. 0.- — Tui (Prosthemadera novce-zealandics). — A common set. 



Fig. 10. — Tui (Prosthemadera novcF-zealandia;). — Local dominant. 



Figs. 1 1,' 1 2. — Tui (Prosthemadera novce-zealandice). — Local sets. 



Fig. 13. — Blue-wattled Crow (Glaucopis wilsoni). — Music of line A. 



Fig. 14. — Blue-wattled Crow (Glaucopis wilsoni). — Music of line B. 



Fig. 15. — Blue-wattled Crow (Glaucopis wilsoni). — Music of line C. 



Fig. 16. — Blue-wattled Crow (Glaucopis wilsoni). — Organ-like note — 

 appears as last of line H. 



Pseudogerygone flaviventris — Grey Warbler. 



Buller, " Birds of New Zealand " (2nd edition), p. 44. 



Among the skins sent to England, and kindly identified by 

 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, were two of a Warbler obtained in 1906 

 at an elevation of 2,000 feet in the Maunga-Haumia bush. Mr. 

 Ogilvie-Grant has referred these two skins to a new species, and, 

 under the name of Pseudogerygone macleani, describes it in The 

 Ibis for IQ07, at page 545. 



In the specimens obtained the iris was, in two exam])les. a dull 



