22 Bird-Song: and New Zealand Song Birds 
this way, now that, showing first the pure white underside of 
the tail, then the upper side with central black feathers, and 
side feathers black along their outer length and white alon<>- 
their inner,—folding and opening its three fans, and tweeting 
with cheerful, bright-eyed insouciant exuberance. It usually 
lingers near the floor of the bush, but may at times be seen 
hawking insects about the tops of the highest trees. 
Whilst albinos of many of the birds of New Zealand have 
been seen, there is no record of an albino fantail; but such 
birds do probably occur.* From correspondence with a half 
Maori of considerable education and ability, I have learned 
that in his boyhood a white fantail flew into the dwelling-house 
of his parents. Such an occurrence had an occult significance 
with the Maori, and his Maori mother was greatly perturbed, 
believing it to be the spirit of some person lately dead. His 
pakeha blood was also moved by the phenomenon, but for a 
different reason; he wondered at the extreme novelty of a 
white fantail. 
All notes are uttered, and songs sung, either whilst the bird 
flits from side to side on the bough, or darts here and there 
whilst gamboling, courting, or pursuing its insect prey. Even 
when alone, the birds are most entertaining, with their air of 
confidence, their undisguised vanity, their ceaseless evolutions; 
but when two appear together they are doubly entertaining. 
I'witnessed a chattering flirtation between a black and a pied 
bird; but their cajoleries suddenly and shamelessly ceased on 
the appearance of a fluttering moth, in pursuit of which both 
set off. Theii beaks snapped audibly as they time and again 
aimed at and missed their prey,—which finally escaped. 
The song may be heard through a greater part of the year, 
though less in the three months March to May, the silent part 
of the >eai as regards bird-song. The note passes from a sus¬ 
tained tweeting, or chatter, through a doubtful warble, to a 
cheery whistied song of fair compass and considerable 
variation. 
the hier'h fl h l al i’ 0ve was fei print I have seen, March, 1926, a perfect albino of 
the black fantail in the V^anganui museum. 
