110 ■ THE ANIMALS OF NEW ZEALAND 



imitation calls to alight on a perch, and were then knocked 

 down by means of a long flexible stick. An experienced and 

 skilful fowler conld catch as many as a hundred in one day. 

 They were also speared and snared by means of a specially 

 prepared apparatus. In the frosty weather they were sought at 

 night, and were captured without much trouble, as their claws 

 were contracted by the cold, and they could not fly. 



A writer in an early number o'f The Ihis refers to the peculiar 

 manner in which the tui mounts into the air in fine weather, 

 parties of about half a dozen "turning, twisting, throwing 

 somersaults, dropping from a height with expanded wings and 

 tail, and performing other antics, till, as if guided by some 

 preconcerted signal, they suddenly dive into the forest and are 

 lost to view." 



The song of the tui, as represented in the Maori language, 

 has been w^ritten by Sir George Grey, and recorded in his work 

 entitled Tlie Poetry of the New ZeaJauders. Mr. G. Fenwick, 

 of Dunediu, in describing a trip to Milford Sound in the early 

 part of 1903, says that he heard the charming melody of this 

 bird everywhere he went, that it met the ear at almost every step 

 in the Clinton and Arthur Valleys, and was also heard in the 

 trips on the Lakes and Milford Sound. The variation of the 

 note in different localities Avas well exemplified in the districts he 

 traversed. He says that the bird seems to have largely discarded 

 the somewhat harsh note with which it usually ends its song in 

 other parts of New Zealand, and has substituted, very often as its 

 only song, what might be termed a single staccato note, which it 

 repeats from four to six times. If the note F on the treble clef 

 above the middle C is struclc on the piano and then whistled 

 either four or six times, an imitation of this particular note of 

 the tui will be produced 



t5aiz:z:z«zz:az:zi=i*z=:*izr 



' ' More often than otherwise, ' ' he says, "it is satisfied with the 

 repetition of this note only, but it frequently adds another note, 

 which may be stated as 



