185 NATURAL HISTORY NOTES IN NEW ZEALAND. 
them, and was first noticed about 40 years ago, as an introduction 
from Australia. It is a very small and active bird, about the size of 
a chiff-chaff and gregarious. I never saw the silver-eye engaged in 
extracting honey from flowers, but it is an excellent hunter after all 
kinds of thrips, aphides, and other blights—hence its appropriate 
name of blight bird. The Maories call it ‘“ tau-hau,” signifying - 
* stranger.” 
The Tui (PRosTHEMADERA Novy® ZEALANDI#£) is one of the most 
interesting birds in the Colony. Undaunted by the advance of civil- 
isation, the tui will linger in the gardens and orchards the whole day 
long, securing the honey from the flower cups of eucalyptus, or the 
claret coloured blossoms of the African honey plant (MeExianrHus), 
just as readily as from the native bush flowers. A capital mimic, he 
imitates the notes of several] native songsters, and suddenly, changing 
from the sublime to the ridiculous, strikes an attitude, and gives 
forth a gutteral sound, likened by some to the throes of a person 
suffering acutely from mal-de-mer. The tui is as large as a missel 
thrush, has a beautiful bluish black plumage, and a remarkable ruflle 
of white feathers upon its throat, which has earned for him the title 
of ‘‘ parson bird.” 
The Bell Bird, or Mako-mako (ANTHORNIS MELANURA) is the 
song bird of the Colony. Its range of notes is limited, but the 
sweetest trill of the nightingale is harsh compared with the bell bird. 
Camping, as I have been wont to do, in the bush on many occasions, 
it has never seemed too early to rise and listen to the tinkling of the 
sweet and exquisite notes of the mako-mako. In size and plumage 
the bell bird is like the green linnet, except, of course, being a honey 
eater it has a very delicate bill and feathery tongue. Often, almost 
at arm’s length, have I watched this beautiful olive-tinted bird, 
dipping its tongue into the tubes of the native fuchsia (F. ExcorR- 
TicaTa), whilst its intensely azure-blue face struck me as most 
