136 



Museum at Vienna ; and under ordinary circumstances the name I have proposed would of course 

 be reduced to a synonym. It will be observed, however, that Professor Schlegel has used a common 

 generic name to distinguish the bird specifically, while he refers the form to the genus Otagon, 

 established by Bonaparte in 1850. As I can see no valid reason for setting aside the generic 

 title of Turnagra proposed by Lesson as early as 1837, and as the adoption of the older specific 

 name would, according to this view, give the confused result of Turnagra tanagra, I have deemed 

 myself justified in retaining the distinctive appellation of T. JiectorL At the same time I am 

 anxious to give due prominence to the fact that Professor Schlegel was the first to discover the 

 existence of this new species. 



Comparatively common in all suitable localities throughout the southern portion of the 

 North Island, this bird is extremely rare in the country north of Waikato. A specimen which I 

 shot in the Kaipara district in the summer of 1852 (doubtless a straggler from the south) was 

 quite a novelty to the natives in that part of the country ; it was recognized, however, by one 

 old Maori, who called it a " Korohea," a name quite unknown in the south, and who stated that 

 in former years it was very abundant in all the woods. 



We have only to look forward a few years to its being equally scarce elsewhere ; and it is 

 high time, therefore, that its biography were written. 



There is a peculiar charm about the New-Zealand forest in the early morning ; for shortly 

 after daylight a number of birds of various kinds join their voices in a wild jubilee of song, 

 which, generally speaking, is of very short duration. This was the morning concert to which 

 Captain Cook referred in such terms of enthusiasm ; and the woods of Queen Charlotte's Sound, 

 where his ship lay at anchor, are no exception to the general rule. In illustration of this, 

 I take the following from an entry in one of my field-note books. " Tuesday, 5 a.m. — At this 

 moment the wooded valley of the Mangaone, in which we have been camped for the night, is 

 ringing with delightful music. It is somewhat difficult to distinguish the performers amidst 

 the general chorus of voices. The silvery notes of the Bell-bird, the bolder song of the Tui, the 

 loud continuous strain of the native Robin, the joyous chirping of a flock of White-heads, and the 

 whistling cry of the Piopio — all these voices of the forest are blended together in wild harmony. 

 And the music is occasionally varied by the harsh scream of a Kaka passing overhead, or the 

 noisy chattering of a pair of Parrakeets on a neighbouring tree, and at regular intervals the far- 

 off cry of the Long-tailed Cuckoo and the whistling call of its bronze-winged congener; while 

 on every hand may be heard the soft trilling notes oi Myiomoira toitoV For more than an hour 

 after this concert had ceased, and the sylvan choristers had dispersed in search of their daily food, 

 one species continued to enliven the valley with his musical notes. This bird was the Piopio, or 

 New-Zealand Thrush, the subject of the present article, and unquestionably the best of our native 

 songsters. His song consists of five distinct bars, each of which is repeated six or seven times in 

 succession ; but he often stops abruptly in his overture to introduce a variety of other notes, one 

 of which is a peculiar rattling sound, accompanied by a spreading of the tail, and apparently 

 expressive of ecstacy. Some of the notes are scarcely distinguishable from those of the Yellow- 

 head ; and I am inclined to think that the bird is endowed with mocking-powers. The ordinary 

 note, however, of the Piopio, whence it derives its name, is a short, sharp, whistling cry, quickly 

 repeated. 





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