52 
BIRDS 
Without attempting any thing like a classifi- 
cation of the Birds of New Zealand, or presuming 
to intrude upon the province of the Natural 
Historian, I shall endeavour to give a short 
description of those which I have particularly 
noticed in this country. — Nothing can possibly 
exceed the exquisiteness of a morning concert as 
performed in the ample woods of these islands. 
One of the greatest treats which I enjoy, is to be 
wakened in my tent by the loud and lovely voices 
of the only musicians which I have met with, 
since I left the lark and the nightingale behind me 
in much-loved England. Their song is too sweet 
to be of long continuance : at the first dawn of 
day it commences, and gradually heightens as 
the light increases ; but no sooner does the sun 
appear, gilding the hills with his bright beams, 
than the performers, one after another, retire, and 
all the lovely sounds die away into profound 
silence : or if the silence be broken, it is only 
by the shrill note of some unmusical bird, who 
dared not to appear till his more melodious com- 
panions had retired into the woods, either to pre- 
pare for, or to take care of, their young, and to 
repose after the exertions of the morning. — I 
proceed to describe some few of the feathered 
inhabitants of New Zealand. 
Tui — This remarkable bird, from the versati- 
lity of its talents for imitation, has, by some, been 
called "‘the Mocking Bird;’’ and, from its pecu- 
