Bush-birds of New Zealand. 541 
sunny mornings, especially after rain, nothing more enchanting 
is to be heard in the bush than the long-drawn flute- and 
organ-like notes of the measured strains of a party of these 
birds, beautifully rendered with many of the notes in chord. 
At other times, with other notes, they become monotonous— 
I fancy a sign of impending rain. From one of its richest 
notes, the Crow has been called “ Bell-bird”’ by the bush- 
men; unfortunately this name is now usually applied to 
it, and leads to confusion when speaking of Anthornis, the 
true Bell-bird. 
The Crow probably breeds in this locality, and does not 
ascend much higher for that purpose. A tree containing a 
nest, which could only be assigned to this bird, was felled in 
heavy Tawhera and pairs of birds were in the vicinity in the 
middle of October. adi oii 
In winter they occasionally descend to the lower bush- 
country (2000 ft.). They are distributed over the greater 
part of the east coast bush-land, but are very local. 
If we leave out the Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris), which 
does not extend so far north, there remain some twenty 
species of North Island birds which may be called truly 
arboreal. Of these, fifteen have been enumerated above as 
observed in the Maungahaumia bush in 1906. And it must 
be borne in mind that none of them are rare—some 
indeed quite common—and that it would be quite possible 
to see all of them in one day. Of the five remaining 
species, Cyanorhamphus nove-zealandie@ was possibly over- 
looked, Eudynamis taitensis had probably not arrived when 
I left, and, although they are considered so rare, T have 
still great hopes of meeting with Creadion carunculatus, 
Turnagra tanagra, and Pogonornis cincta. 
These notes would hardly be complete without some 
mention ef the imported species observed during my stay. 
They were few in number. 
A single Sparrow (Passer domesticus) was seen on the 
pack-track on the birch-ridge in April; two Blackbirds 
