hurried, and a trace of the lost accent heard on the vibrato 
flat. The phrase took a second and a half in utterance & a °i d 
was repeated several times, always with the skipped a’cJei 
and the vibrato final note. The earliest song heard in 1917 
the phrase (8), also in perfect time. It was a bright, cheerful 
song, sung at the rate of eight semiquavers in a second and 
was heard on the 27th March, at the end of the second month 
of autumn. The day was the third day of coldish, fresh 
weather after a spell of dry heat; it was almost frosty though 
sunny and bright. The song was unusually early, as the hedge 
sparrow generally starts singing in Wellington about July the 
last month of winter, singing on till the moult in the hot weeks 
of January. 
I do not know if the hedge-sparrow sings by night as well 
as by day in Britain; but I have heard it sing short snatches 
on moonlit as well as on moonless nights in the shrub-bush 
about Wellington. 
It seems almost regrettable that this bird should bear a name 
that confuses it with the pugnacious and ubiquitous house- 
span oi\, which it resembles in no particular except in plumage, 
and then in only a slight degree. The associations attached to 
a name, however, outweigh any inappropriateness it may 
possess, and would prevent change, even were change desirable. 
The New Zealand birds of this family are: 
Pseudogerygone igata the grey warbler riroriro 
p„ + *y a the white-breasted tit (N.I.) miromiro or ngirungiru 
¥ ' Je< ;» maerocephalathe yellow-breasted tit (S.I.) do. do. 
M o albilrons the South Island robin ' pitoitoi or 
Mno austrahs the North Island robin toutouwai 
and minor varieties of the robin, also another warbler on 
Chatham Islands. 
The grey warbler. Above, greyish-olive; throat and breast 
grey, abdomen white, tinged with yellow. Tail, black, with a 
wnte spot near the tip of the lateral feathers. Eye, red. 
e sexes are alike, but in the young there is no yellow on the 
owei surface. Bill and feet, dark brown. Total length, 41 in., 
of which the tail is 2 in. 
