Bell-birds 795 



complement of eggs is three or four, these being white, often mottled, blotched, 

 and speckled with brown. 



New Zealand Bell -bird. As nearly every part of the world has a bird 

 whose notes are thought more or less fancifully to resemble the sound of a bell, 

 so New Zealand has a Bell-bird (Anthornis melanura), which happens to belong 

 to the present family. It is a small bird, about seven inches long, the male 

 being uniform dull yellowish green, with black wings and tail, and the female 

 olive-brown above and dingy fawn-color below, the wings and tail brown. 

 Half a century ago the Bell-bird was one of the most abundant and generally 

 distributed birds of these regions, but with the coming of civilization and the 

 extensive destruction of the forests it gradually decreased in numbers until it 

 seemed likely to become extinct, but in later years it has regained its ground 

 to some extent. It frequented the woods as well as the dense bushes along 

 streams, feeding upon insects, honey, and apparently berries. The account of 

 its song we quote from Buller: "Its notes, though simple, are varied and 

 sweetly chimed, and as the bird is of social habits, the morning anthem, in 

 which scores of the sylvan choristers perform together, is a concert of eccentric 

 parts, producing a wild but pleasing melody. I have occasionally heard a 

 solitary Bell-bird pouring forth its liquid notes after the darkness of advancing 

 night had silenced all other denizens of the grove. It ought to be mentioned, 

 moreover, that both sexes sing. When alarmed or excited they utter a strain 

 of notes which I can only compare to the sound produced by a policeman's 

 rattle quickly revolved. This cry, or the bird-catcher's imitation of it, never 

 fails to attract to the spot all the Bell-birds within hearing." The nest of this 

 Bell-bird is usually a rather loose structure of small, dry twigs and fine grasses 

 and deeply lined with feathers; it is placed in the fork of a low tree, and the 

 three or four eggs are white or pinkish white with a zone of reddish brown spots 

 toward the larger end and a few similarly colored spots scattered over the general 

 surface. More or less complete albinos of this species and the two preceding 

 are occasionally seen. 



South Australian Bell-bird. In Queensland, New South Wales, and Vic- 

 toria the colonists have given the name of Bell-bird to another member of this 

 subfamily, although to distinguish it from the Bell-bird of the inland drier 

 parts of Australia (Oreoica cristata] it is sometimes called the Bell Miner, 

 which also separates it at least by name from the Miner next to be mentioned. 

 This Bell-bird (Manorhina melanophrys) is about seven or eight inches long, 

 and has the plumage golden green throughout, except the wings and tail, which 

 are dark brown, while the eyes are dark brown, the legs and feet orange-yellow, 

 and a naked space behind the eye orange-red. It is a local and gregarious species, 

 living usually in small companies of from ten to forty, chiefly near water and in 

 dense, swampy areas, where it is observed disporting among the leafy branches, 

 assuming all sorts of positions in its search for insects, or " flying with outspread 

 wings and tail from tree to tree, and giving utterance to a peculiar garrulous 

 note totally different in sound from the faint monotonous tinkle usually uttered, 

 which has been justly compared to the sound of distant sheep-bells, and which 



