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metallic tints are not so bright, and there is more brown in the plumage of the underparts. The throat is 
adorned with white tufts as in the other sex, but they are usually smaller. 
Young. Uniform slaty black, with a broad undefined patch or circlet of greyish white on the throat, varying in 
extent, more conspicuous in the female, and sometimes spreading all round the neck ; median wing-coverts 
white, as in the adult ; irides black ; rictal membrane yellow. 
Obs. In the young bird the plumage is soft and fluffy, and entirely wants the metallic lustre. In the adult 
state examples vary in the brilliancy of their tints, and some have a bright coppery bronze on their 
upper parts. 
Progress toivards maturity. About the first week of November I obtained from the nest a fledgling, in which 
the membrane at the angles of the mouth was very conspicuous and the plumage partly undeveloped ; by 
the second week in December it had assumed the full juvenile dress, with a faint greyish collar, the rictal 
membrane had disappeared, and the throat-tufts had commenced to sprout ; at the end of another month 
the lappets had formed but were very small ; two weeks later, the new metallic plumage had begun to 
supplant the adolescent growth, appearing at first in tracts, or irregular strips, on the breast and sides of the 
body, and then spreading outwards ; and by the end of February the bird had acquired the full adult livery, 
although the tints of the plumage were not so brilliant as in the more matured condition. 
Varieties. Uniform brown-coloured varieties have been occasionally met with ; and it is not an unusual thing 
to find specimens with a single white quill or tail-feather, or marked about the throat and face with scattered 
white feathers. In the Christchurch Acclimatization Gardens I observed a caged one with a broad patch of 
white covering the outer webs of the secondaries on both wings. A beautiful albino was obtained some 
years ago in the Wanganui district, and now forms part of my collection in the Colonial Museum : the 
general plumage is pure white; a shining black band fills the lores, crosses the forehead, and spreads down 
each side of the neck in an irregular patch of sooty black ; lower part of back, rump, and thighs sooty black, 
with white feathers interspersed ; wings pure white, excepting the outer secondaries and the long primary 
coverts, which are glossy black ; bill white ; tarsi and toes yellowish white. 
There is another abnormally coloured bird in the Colonial Museum : head, neck all round, breast, and 
fore part of abdomen smoky brown; the rest of the plumage pale creamy brown, darker on the quills and 
tail-feathers. The tliroat-tufts are as in ordinary examples, and there is a broad bar of white across the 
smaller wing-coverts ; the frilled collar is rather inconspicuous, although the central line of white is present, 
and there is a narrow streak of the same from the angles of the mouth ; the feathers of the breast have 
likewise fine white shaft-lines ; bill and feet white horn-colour. 
Sir William Fox informs me that at Porirua Harbour (near Wellington) he once observed a bird of this 
species with the entire plumage of a delicate fawn-colour. 
This bird is one of our most common species, and on that account generally receives less attention in 
its own country than its singular beauty merits. It was described and figured, as early as the year 
1776, in Brown’s ‘Illustrations of Zoology,’ and has since been mentioned by nearly every writer on 
general ornithology. In 1840 Mr. G. It. Gray made it the type of a rew genus, in which, up to the 
present time, it stands quite alone. 
The early colonists named it the “ Parson bird,” in allusion to the peculiar tufts of white feathers 
that adorn its throat, and their fancied resemblance to the clerical bands. To those who are familiar 
with the bird in its native woods, this name is certainly appropriate ; for when indulging in its strain 
of wild notes it displays these “ bands,” and gesticulates in a manner forcibly suggestive of the 
declamatory style of preaching, or, as Dr. Thompson graphically expresses it, “ sitting on the branch 
of a tree, as a pro tempore pulpit, he shakes his head, bending to one side and then to another, as 
if he remarked to this one and to that one ; and once and again, with pent-up vehemence, contracting 
his muscles and drawing himself together, his voice waxes loud, in a manner to waken sleepers to 
their senses ! ” 
