The Thrushes 
41 
but even here its numbers have become woefully diminished. 
Four or five years ago, on either side of the Upper Rakaia, 
where the bushes descend the mountain slopes, these birds fairly 
teemed in their favourite haunts, but they are already becoming 
rare. They may be seen about the bushes that skirt the cold 
streams of the Havelock, the Upper Waimakariri, and Bealey; 
through the romantic gorge of the Otira to the more level ground 
that stretches away to the Teremakau it may be frequently seen, 
always appearing to prefer the timbered forests, the mixed scrub,, 
made up of moderate sized bushes of Coriaria, Olearia, Veronica , 
and Coprosma. As we reach the western coast, about the Arahura 
river it was, some years since, most abundant. In December, 
1871, we searched one of their former favourite haunts, a large 
island in that river more or less covered with scrub-bush, dotted 
with ti-trees, and two or three specimens only were to be seen; 
they have been driven away from Arahura by the clearance 
for paddocks to supply the requirements of the West Coast 
cattle trade. In December, 1871, in travelling along the coast 
from Ross to Okarita, we saw this bird in abundance on the 
face of those bluffs which form such picturesque breaks in that 
journey; up the river flats it was equally numerous. 
"Settlers have given the name of the thrush to the pio-pio, 
from its size and brown plumage recalling to mind their 
favourite of the old country; it possesses not in the slightest 
degree that charm of song which distinguishes the throstle, 
yet it enjoys the power of giving utterance to several pleasing 
notes. It does not stir so early as many other birds; its 
morning salute is a long-drawn rather plaintive note; this 
peculiar whistle it indulges in at times only, for its habit when 
close to the water, frequently is to pipe thrice, in a way that 
at once recalls the redbill ( Haematopus ) ; the imitation is so 
like, that the writer and his son (well acquainted with bird- 
notes and calls) were frequently deceived, and have looked 
for a red-bill till the pio-pio disclosed himself by fluttering 
from bush to bush. Its common song seems to be near akin to 
that of the pipit ( Antilles novae-zealandiae) ; it sounds two 
preludatory notes, then strikes off into a very brief song; 
