October 6, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



l8g 



definitely settled the matter. Meanwhile her mate, who 

 had still a good deal of care of three dapper young rob- 

 ins in the evergreens (their first family), had apparently 

 selected a heavier crotch in a better place, and he busied 

 himself about that spot, not making any attempt to build, 

 but merely showing his preference. 



Madam would not look at him. Finally while she was 

 absent, he came down to a vase on the lawn, a favorite 

 perch of his, where he had sung away many a twilight 

 hour, and began a very low, sweet song. It was alluring; 

 hard indeed must be the heart that could resist it. 



She did come, but she did not join him on the vase. 

 She had another load of material, and flew at once to her 

 chosen tree. He stopjDed singing and looked at her. She 

 alighted and ran out on the branch as she had done be- 

 fore, and, as before, the material she had collected fell to 

 the ground. Then she flirted herself over the crotch in a 

 petulant way that tumbled ofl: every scrap that had 

 lodged there. Plainly she was "mad" and did not seri- 

 ously intend to build there at all. 



After this display she flew away, and her observer on 

 the vase went to the grovind where he could look through 

 the passage she had taken. Presently the captious little 

 dame returned with an empty beak, and alighted near 

 him on the lawn. To our amazement he instantly ran 

 away several feet, then paused. She advanced toward 

 him, and he ran farther, keeping always a few feet from 

 her. It actually appeared as if he were on the defensive. 



This sort of performance went on for some time. Oc- 

 casionally both were out of sight behind the low-growing 

 evergreens, then both would return and go on as before, 

 he never letting her get nearer to him than five or six 

 feet. It was painful to see this bad state of things in our 

 heretofore amiable couple, and we sorely regretted having 

 torn down the nest. 



It is one of the maddening things to the bird-student 

 that he cannot keep his game always in sight. No mat- 

 ter how great the crisis in their lives, nor how absorbing 

 his interest, a flit of the wings carries them out of sight 

 in a moment. Then again they are such distressingly 

 early risers. If the student tear himself away from his 

 pillow before the sun shows his face, he will find bird-life 

 in full blast. Before it is light enough to see well, their 

 day of work and play is begun. We shall never thor- 

 oughly know the feathered folk till we rise at their un- 

 canny hour and learn to fly ! 



. Before we got the robin fairly in view again — probably 

 in those tantalizing morning hours — their difficulties had 

 straightened out, and building was going on seriously m 

 a maple tree a little down the road, quite near the other, 

 but out of sight from the veranda. 



Two or three weeks passed in peace, and we hoped the 

 robin troubles were over. Every day we saw the hard- 

 working sire, followed around by his three young folk, as 

 big as he was, calling and teasing for food. 

 • Then one evening the robin treated us to a strange per- 

 formance. He stood on the groiind in the middle of the 

 carriage way, crouched, so that he almost rested on the 

 gravel, his head sunk between his shoulders, and looking 

 as if he were at his last gasp. But he was uttering low 

 notes, and we listened. It was a constant repetition of 

 the queer unmiisical sort of " que-e-e " with which many 

 robins end their song. This is neither a trUl nor a dis- 

 tinct note, but a sound as if the bird had tried to reach a 

 high note and the voice had broken. 



The bird repeated it again and again, and with varied 

 inflections and movement. Plainly he was practising it. 

 What could be his object? and why that unnatural atti- 

 tude ? Had he been crazed by his troubles, and was he a 

 candidate for the lunatic asylum ? or was he perchance a 

 genius, evolving a new song for the robin tribe ? Evi- 



dently he was bound to evolve something, for he prac- 

 tised without ceasing. 



After awhile he moved a little so that his tail — still rest- 

 ing on the ground — was deflected to one side, in a very 

 unnatural position, and there he stood motionless for half 

 an hour or more, still constantly making the strange 

 noises. All this time we had not been positive of his 

 identity, but now he turned his head up as though ad- 

 dressing some divinity in the tree with his grotesque 

 strains. He was not ten feet from us, and it was eight 

 o'clock and perfectly light, so that we saw him distinctly. 

 Just as we were concluding that some accident must have 

 befallen him and we ought to go down to see, he suddenly 

 straightened himself up on his legs, shook himself out, 

 and sang out loud and clear his regular song. That made 

 it certain that it was our friend of the maple tree, and we 

 were fearful that his mate being at last settled and in her 

 right mind, he had himself broken down. Our host, how- 

 ever, refused to take this desponding view. He insisted 

 that the bird felt within him the stirrings of genius, and 

 that he was founding a race of robins with a new song. 



Certain it is that he kept up the strange practisings 

 evening after evening, though never again on the ground. 

 Madam, his spouse, sometimes came down and looked at 

 him, as if to make up her mind whether he was simply 

 unfortunate and to be pitied, or whether he were vicious 

 in deliberatelj' violating all robin traditions, and she ought 

 to discipline him. Apparently she was unable to decide, 

 for she returned to her undoubted duty, and he kei:)t up 

 his droll entertainment till the next instalment of his fam- 

 ily came on to demand all his time and strength, and 

 robin music ceased altogether. 



At the end of July I left the scene of this robin eccen- 

 tricity, but my comrade, who remained, heard so late as 

 the middle of October, the same sort of performance 

 going on among thick berry-bushes, at some distance 

 from the house, and on starting up the bird she found it 

 to be a robin. 



Could it be the same bird ? And shall we have a new 

 sort of robin music next spring? 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NEW ZEALAND.— H. 



BY GEO. M. THOMSON, DDNEDIN, N. Z. 



In a previous paper {Science, Vol. XX., p. 323), atten- 

 tion was draw to the fact that the plants of New Zealand 

 are nearly destitute of all such structures as are correlated 

 with the presence of mammalia. A ijriori this is what 

 might have been expected in a country in which there 

 were no indigenous mammals. Those plants which have 

 defensive structures, such as spines, prickles, etc., and 

 those whose seeds or fruits are fitted for adhering to the 

 coats of passing animals belong in almost every case 

 to species having a wide range outside of New Zealand, 

 the inference being that the characters referred to have 

 been developed outside the New Zealand region, and that 

 such species have been introduced into these islands at a 

 comparatively recent period. 



Another interesting feature in the flora is the relation 

 existing between the flowering plants and the various 

 agencies which are necessary for fertilizing the blossoms. 

 Visitors to these islands are usually struck with the pre- 

 vailing dark hue of the evergreen vegetation and the ap- 

 parent absence of flowers. Associated with this is a cor- 

 responding absence of consi^icuous insects, — especially 

 large Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera, — which are such 

 active agents in this work in most other parts of the 

 world. While it is true that there are a few species of 

 flowering plants of exceptional beauty, such as GUanthus 

 puniceus and the splendid white Clematis (C. indivisa,) 

 yet the general verdict is correct that the flowers of the 



