In the Haunts of New Zealand Birds 117 



Amid the forests of beech or fagus which clothe the mountains about 

 the head of Lake Wakatipu, I found an entertaining bird company as- 

 sembled. In walking up a gorge to a charming mountain lakelet, known 

 as Rere Lake, which nestles amid the beech -clothed mountains, I heard 

 the liquid tones of the Bell-bird, the timorous fluting of the Gray 

 Warbler, and the lisping call of the South Island Titmouse. Dodging 

 about in the clean foliage of the young beech trees on the margin of the 

 lakelet, was a chunky little bird with a big head, a fine bill, stout legs 

 and a stub tail. It was not over four inches long, and was colored an 

 olive-green on the back and gray on the under parts. The sides and 

 upper tail -coverts were yellowish green, the top of the head was dark 

 brown and the sides of the head were black, with a conspicuous line of 

 white above the eye. I soon recognized this odd little wood -elf as the 

 so-called Bush-wren, although, as a matter of fact, it is not a Wren 

 but an Ant-thrush, which, again, is not a Thrush but a Pitta, — one of a 

 family of birds quite characteristic of the Australasian region. So much 

 for popular names! When colonists settle in remote parts of the earth, 

 they carry with them the familiar names of places, of birds and of flowers, 

 applying them indiscriminately to the first objects that offer the slightest 

 pretext. Thus it happens that the Robins of New Zealand are really 

 Old World Warblers, the Tomtit belongs in the same family, while the 

 Bush -wren is a Pitta. 



Another interesting bird of the beech forests is the Pied Fantail. A 

 diminutive creature, about the size and build of the Black Fantail, 

 whose acquaintance we made in the Bishop's grove. The Pied Fantail 

 is so lively and tame that the traveler in the most remote wilderness can- 

 not feel lonely in its company. Listen to its high, sqeaky queepf queep! 

 queep! — varied now and again by a still higher creaky squeak of a song. 

 It is so whole-souled, so frankly unmelodious, so full of vain enthusiasm for 

 unattainable song, that the listener is quite carried away by it. Then, 

 see the little thing flitting about in the beech foliage, with quick jerks to 

 emphasize its call, the showy tail expanded and erect, and the wings 

 coyly drooping. It is an energetic, bustling, snappy creature, nervous 

 and bristling. A grayish brown -black and pale bufiy breast are scarce the 

 colors for so vain and ambitious a mite, but the black and white of the 

 head are as showy as a harlequin's mask, while the long tail is similarly 

 varied. The Fantails, like other members of the Fly-catcher family, live 

 chiefly on such insect prey as they can capture on the wing. 



Native birds are by no means abundant in New Zealand, and the 

 traveler must journey far from civilization to discover many species. While 

 riding horseback over a wild mountain trail in the Routeburn Valley, some 

 miles inland from the head of Lake Wakatipu, I saw, for the first and 

 only time, the Yellow-head, popularly known to the colonists as the Wild 



