-117 
Song; and 
Notes 
of the 
Bell Bird 
minutes more, bok- in^, tar^-ing and calling tue-tue , etc. 
many times. Mr, Carr assures me that he has never before 
watched one under such favorable conditions. The bird 
sat on 8. naked branch in a strong clear light and the air 
was perfectly still, I used my pencil and note-book freely 
and noT>[ transcribe the results as follows: 
The Bell Bird has three distinct notes — the first, 
bok ; the second, tue ; the third, tang . The bok is probably a 
call note*. It is uttered with great irregularity, sometimes - 
perhaps habitually — at intervals of about ten seconds, 
sometimes every second or half second five or six times in 
succession. At a dietsnce of four or five hundred yards it 
resembles the stroke of an axe on hard, resonant wood, and is 
very misleading for although it is not difficult to judge 
correctly the direction from which it comes, a novice would 
be certainly deceived as to the distance and would suppose 
the bird to be only fifty yards or so av/ay. Indeed, as one 
follows on in the direction of the sound the impression which 
he is likely to conceive is that the bird is flying from tree 
to tree and keeping on ahead of him. This impression, how¬ 
ever, is dispelled after he comes within 100 yards or so, 
for the sound then becomes louder and louder until, when 
the listener gets directly beneath the tree it is simply 
tremendous in volume. It has now a slightly rolling 
quality (br-r- ock ) and is so abrupt and explosive in 
