The Warbler 



;UE most perfect winter and 

 early spring weather comes 

 when the wind blows directly 

 off the snow-clad Ruahine 

 Range, the nights are frosty, 

 the days are still, the lake a sheet of glass, 

 the blue sky cloudless. During weather such 

 as this in early August, everywhere on the 

 run may be heard the long, tremulous trill 

 of the Warbler, rather a cricket's cry than 

 a bird's. 



Presently, from some manuka thicket, a 

 sombre plumaged little bird will emerge, 

 light on some topmost twig, and pour forth 

 to three-quarters of the globe — for in his 

 ecstasy he nearly sings a circle — this faint 

 sweet trill that heralds fuller spring. 



Although a plentiful species on the run, 

 even in winter the Warbler's presence 

 about the homestead is infrequent. During 



