24 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
was a delightful, bright song, with definite whistled theme 
introduced by tweets. It was sung by a black fantail in May 
the first month of winter, two birds being together. The 
morning was sunny and dewy, thrushes also singing freely. In 
(5) the part enclosed in bars was sung in about two seconds 
and to form the song was repeated several times without a 
break, the soft introductory note being omitted. The pairs 
of notes at the opening of the theme were slurred, and at times 
there were three pairs instead of two. More fully vocalized 
were the notes of (6), the series of nine notes being sung in a 
&y* 
rfH 
IS Is 
N 
M 
TE ~ 
— J 
9 - 
m 
d 
b M 
W - 
^- 
y — 
+ — 
~~~~~~~~~~~ 
y 
y 
tip te ti ti ti tip te tia tia tia tia 
6 V* 
W^r 1 
— 
1 
K- 
y 
• 
M 
• 
y— 
y 
y 
• 
• 
/ I f 
Lj-, 
• LjJ 
• 
I—m 
• 
• 
V 
_ 
sL 
/lA 
• 
little over a second. The unusual combination (7) was heard 
several times on the island Kapiti. 
There is indication of theme in many of the songs, but 
“time” is generally suggested rather than actually present. 
In (8), however, theme and time are both quite definite. This 
song was noted in Christchurch during April. The opening 
notes were still the constricted almost vocal sounds of the 
tweeting songs, but the upper e was nearer a sweet, pleasant 
whistle. This song was long-continued; sometimes it opened 
with the common tweet-a-tweet-a-tweet, sometimes directly on 
the clearer yet restricted g. The intervals were precise, and the 
notes sung legato. During the same autumn the variation (9) 
was much more commonly heard. 
