NATURAL HISTORY NOTES IN NEW ZEALAND. 186 
grotesque, till I learnt that the blue pollen was being conveyed from 
flower to flower. No bird ever filled me with such enthusiastic 
delight in the beauties of sound and sight in Nature as the bell bird 
of New Zealand. 
The Stitch bird (Poconornis crincta) is the only other honey 
bird, and is now quite confined to the Barrier Islands to N.E. of 
Auckland—another of the Government sanctuaries for birds. 
There are two interesting birds confined to the higher ranges 
commonly called canaries by the colonists. Buller terms them the 
White Head and the Yellow Head (OrrHonyx ALBICILLA and 
O, ocHrocePHALA). They move in small flocks in the dense bush 
and are jealous of intrusion. They are very much alike. I secured 
a specimen of the yellow head whilst the birds were disputing the 
right of road with me, by merely striking the branch upon which 
they perched. 
The grey warbler (GeRYGONE Nov ZEALANDI#) is about the size 
of a chiff-chaff and very plain in plumage. Its pleasing song is a 
perfect scale upwards and then a return downwards to the note at 
which it commenced. Living and spending its whole existence in 
the low manuka scrub (LEPTOSPERMUM scoPARIUM and L, ERICOIDES) 
its hiding place is easily discovered by the cuckoos which use the 
grey warbler as a foster mother. 
The bush wren (XENICUS LONGICEPS) is a very small piece of 
animation, and is only seen in the Fagus forests of the ranges. I am 
glad tosay I never destroyed one even when longing for a specimen. 
Few Colonials, except the bush workers, have ever seen them. A 
still smaller bird is the rifleman (AcaNTHASITTA CHLORIS) the 
minutest bird I ever saw excepting a humming bird. As it runs 
along the prostrate logs of the bush it looks like a mouse, and 
apparently tailless. 
