Sydney Porter-—Notes on Neiv Zealand Birds



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those of others this unfortunately is not the case. Everyone in New

Zealand knows of the Tui, for its fame is almost legendary, but very

few town dwellers or members of the younger generation have seen

it unless they live in remote districts.


It was my great desire to see these famous birds as soon as I arrived

in New Zealand, but to do so I had to travel many miles off the beaten

track into the virgin bush. In fact to get the first glimpse of this

bird I had to go nearly twenty miles into the mountains from a tiny

township called Mananui (meaning, “ the place of many birds ”). We

travelled up in the early mornings ona“ jigger ”, an ingenious machine

consisting of an ancient motor cycle with four truck wheels fastened

on to enable it to run on the lines up to the timber-felling camp.

The first day we journeyed up in the pouring rain, almost frozen with

cold, and that was in midsummer ! At length, after many hours in

the dripping forest, we heard the loud ringing notes of a Tui and soon

afterwards saw him perched on the topmost branch of a high forest

tree, his “ pois ” were very conspicuous, he continued to call for a time

but later we lost him.


In the days following we saw quite a few, but never more than

three or four at a time. Usually they were more often heard than seen.

Once we were lucky enough to see two males displaying to a female.

There was a terrible commotion as the birds dashed about the branches.

They seemed quite regardless of our presence. The two males jumped

about with the greatest energy, their body feathers puffed out, until

they appeared nearly twice their natural size, all the time their

“ pois ” standing out very plainly against the deep shining plumage.

They danced and sang in an exceedingly noisy and clumsy way until

the hen moved off, followed by her two suitors.


People go into raptures over the song of this bird, but to my mind

it is greatly over-rated. It is certainly very loud, much louder and

stronger in volume than any other bird I know, but it is by no means

sweet like the song of the skylark.


Both the song of the Tui and the way it is delivered are remarkable.

The loud rich notes are poured out with much gesticulating and

reaching ; one would almost think that the bird had a bone in its

throat that it was trying to get rid of.



