660 



Transactions . 



On the same day we saw two beautiful redbills {Haematopus unicolor- 

 torea). Their cry is very simple, merely a sharply sounded / : — 



^v«r- 



m 



Tsip 



The sound may be represented by the letters tsip, ending on the first part 

 of the p (with lips closed). It was uttered both on the wing and at rest. 

 One bird, which my companion, Mr. Burnett, said was a young one, had 

 the same note, a semitone lower.| 



In the early morning of the same day, thirteen miles up the Jollie River, 

 in Pinnacle Creek, we saw a native lark {Anthus novae-zealandiae — pihoihoi). 

 A light snow was falling at the time, and the bird settled on a big rock close 

 by, bobbing its tail up and down as he whistled an /, somewhat similar to 

 the note of the redbill, but unlettered : — 



On the lower course of the Jollie that morning Mr. Burnett pointed out, 

 as. we rode, that on each of five large rocks standing up at intervals along 

 the river a seagull was standing sentinel. We crossed the Tasman on the 

 24th November, and had just crossed a fair stream in mid-channel when 

 we noticed half a dozen black-billed gulls {Larus huUeri) wheeling above us, 

 malving great clamour. Besides the common cry shown in No. (1), one of 

 the birds at least constantly and shrilly emitted the cry No. (2) : — 



<r^ 



1^ 



^^Ek 



w> 19 » it m ^ — M 



We presently saw the reason. Two young downy birds, scarcely able to 

 run, for they constantly stumbled and fell on the sand, the river there 

 being free from stones, were scurrying away from us towards the stream, 

 into which they plunged. They were then in their element, for they swam 

 perfectly, and had soon placed the stream between them and the supposed 

 source of danger, when they stumbled up the sand on the other side. They 

 were simply little balls of grey-brown down, and each could easily have 

 been contained in a small teacvip. 



On the 18th November, 1909, I was on the west side of the Tasman 

 River, in the bush on Bush Creek. Here I heard a single grey-warbler 

 three times, and each time he sang the following variation of the usual 

 warbler sequence : — 



^^ 



^^ 



Here, in so far as the notes arc in triplets, the scheme is similar to that of 

 the variations (3) and (4) in the Transactions of 1908. The difference is 



