NATURAL HISTORY. 
613 
a bright glossy black, with four large tail feathers, tipped 
with white, which have a graceful curve, with a small 
white tuft under the root of the tail, the male has a long 
slender bright yellow bill, the female has a thicker one, 
the eye is of a leaden color; it has a little yellow fleshy 
lappet on each side of the head, which look like two wafers 
stuck on the cheeks, the legs and feet are long, slender, 
and of a bright yellow ; its hop is very singular, almost 
like that of the kangaroo ; the skins are very highly prized 
as articles of barter ; the range of this rare bird is confined 
to the south of the Ruahine mountains, in the North Island, 
especially on the Tararua range, the natives forward the 
skins to the north carefully packed between pieces of bark, 
and receive sharks' teeth in return ; a good skin is valued at 
one pound. 
The following are honey-birds : — 
Farm Melli phagidce — the tui, Ttoko, ( Prosthemadera , JSfovce 
Scelandioe) . Cook named this beautiful and lively bird, the 
parson and mocking bird ; it acquired the first name from its 
having two remarkable tufts of small white feathers on the 
neck, like a pair of clergyman's bands ; and the latter from its 
facility in imitating sounds ; though not a bird of gaudy colors, 
there is something very chaste and elegant in its plumage, a 
black bronzed hue, with delicate white hair feathers round the 
neck ; it is a sweet songster, and full of activity, incessantly 
flying up and down, and uttering its varied and joyous notes ; 
in the spring it may be seen amongst the yellow kowai trees, 
brushing out the pollen from the flowers with the greatest 
rapidity ; when tamed, it readily imitates every kind of sound, 
and soon forms an attachment to any one who notices it, so 
that it is a general favorite. 
The tui becomes extremely fat in winter, when it is caught 
in great numbers by snares ; but in that season it is also 
taken by marking its place of roost on a frosty night ; in the 
morning its legs and wings are so benumbed with cold, that 
it is easily shaken from its perch, which it has not strength 
to leave before the sun warms its half-frozen body; this 
seems to prove that the climate has become colder than it 
