46 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
and against the melodies of this choir the best New Zealand 
can offer is the plaintive song of the grey warbler, the Maori 
riroriro. It is the most sustained of all the songs of the Maori 
birds; and whilst it is neither powerful, nor rich and varied 
in quality of tone, it is one of the most generally artistic of 
all the songs, possessing strains that, if further developed, 
would rank the bird as a fine songster. The tom-tit, another 
member of the New Zealand family, has one little phrase of song 
on which it warbles variations. The North Island robin, another 
member of the family, is, like the thrush, almost a 
bird of the past, though there is hope of its preservation 
since it is found in numbers on the sanctuary of Kapiti. It is 
a fine singer, though apparently it never was voluble, its song 
being uttered with wild jovousness in early morning for 
perhaps five minutes at a time from some tree-top, when it 
would suddenly cease as the bird dived into the depths of the 
bush. 
A few observations may be made on the song of the hedge- 
sparrow, now perfectly naturalized in New Zealand. This 
song is a quick, vocalized warble, mostly hovering about one 
note; at times intervals are attempted;—I have heard an 
interval as wide as two tones legato, and an octave slurred. 
The intervals are often less than semitones, and the vocalization 
is greatly varied. Whilst there is much indefiniteness in the 
song, and much of it appears to be sung in a haphazard way, 
there appear to be certain definite themes and phrases that are 
the result of an awakening art, and not of blind accident. The 
phrases (I) to (3) show the hovering about one note, and the 
varied vocalization. * 
The vowel sound of i is short, as in hit, and the e is short as in 
net ; the u is the sound of oo in poor, the o short as in not ; the 
ee indicates the long sounds as in sweet. Phrase (2) took a little 
over a second, as did its variant, phrase (3) ; these were continued, 
*As many of the birds use intervals less than semitones, the ordinary sharp 
and flat have been varied to represent these smaller intervals, as under : 
% Quarter sharp ; «« half sharp ; jf three quarters sharp ; 
^ quarter flat; \) half flat; ^ three quarters flat. 
