4146 The Zoologist — September, 1874. 



cuckoo, or whistler {Chrysococcyx), always raaljes known his 

 presence with an oft-repealed whistle; the long-tailed koekoea 

 announces his arrival with deep-breathed note : these love-calls 

 are unlike all other of our bird-sounds. The wild scream of the 

 weka-rail tells us of his whereabouts from a considerable distance; 

 and this most confident of rails is as noisy by night as it is by day. 

 When sitting still in the bush I have seen a weka silently approach 

 and give notice of ray presence by a strange note, which, although 

 delivered within a iew feet of where I was sitting, sounded like 

 wood being struck at a great distance off. 



The remarkable notes of the owls must not be passed over 

 silently ; for the name at least, if not the appearance, of the more- 

 pork {Athene NovcB-Zelandia;) is well known throughout the colony. 

 Australian settlers distinguish a podargus by a similar name, whence 

 the colonial epithet (whether of New Zealand or Australian origin 

 is uncertain), applied to a dawdling person, who is often described 

 as " a regular old more-pork." The call of the wekau [A. albifacies) 

 is vociferous, wild, often startling from their heavy slumbers the 

 inmates of the mountain huts. Probably the clamour of this genus, 

 like that of Falco, is a means of startling some of their prey into 

 motion. The large owl is said to have likewise a call somewhat 

 similar to the more-pork, but much more gruff in tone. Laughing- 

 jackass is one of the names conferred on the wekau ; this distinction 

 is conferred on an Australian bird as well as by some of our sea- 

 birds amongst the petrels or Procellaridae. 



When the south-east wind blows on our east coast, bringing 

 with it thick hazy weather, — when curling mists drift up the 

 harbours and hide away in their vaporous mantles hill and moun- 

 tain, shearing the landscape of its fair proportions, — the curious 

 note of a petrel may be heard from dusky eve till early morn, not 

 only about the harbours and estnaries, but far up the river-beds to 

 the gorges in the vast mountain chain of the southern Alps. 



Amongst the most silent of our birds may be named the shags 

 {Pelecanidcc), the harrier, the heron, and the grebe, whose voices, 

 except during the breeding-season, are rarely heard. The squeal 

 of the harrier is most infrequent, considering what a very common 

 bird it is. In the breeding season the scream is heard from a bird 

 soaring high in air, or frightcued from its nest, or suddenly driven 

 off its prey, occasionally only from a bird on the wing hawking 

 over burnt ground, which has disclosed perhaps an unusual 



