The theme (10) is one of these scarcely-heard songs- it i, 
almost a bird-whisper, with a sound somewhat like that, pro 
duced by rubbing a wet finger on glass. Each group of four 
notes takes about half a second in utterance. 
In the valley-bush on Banks Peninsula where many of these 
warbler notes were recorded, slender, misty-foliaged coprosmas 
grow here and there in glimmering thickets under the pillared 
totara and matai, and it is a pretty sight to see the warblers 
searching for prey amongst those shrubs. The birds try to 
settle on the tlnn, springy, yielding twigs, sometimes openino- 
and closing the tail fan-wise very quickly; and sometimes they 
poise, fluttering in one position, tail downwards and broadly 
spread, so that on the ventral side they show a bar of white 
a ong tlie tips of the tail-feathers. When fluttering among the 
small leaves where the branch-tips are too delicate for foot- 
o d, the waft from the wings makes the surrounding green 
quiver like mist blown by a faint wind. 
When heard away from the bush, among the haunts of men, 
ae song- appears to assume more definiteness. The theme of 
. 1,s 1 ^ e one I commonly heard in the bosky environs of 
Christchurch when resident there. 
. theme is quite definite, and may be repeated many 
lines without break, a very pleasing, plaintive melody. Occa- 
siona y the last four notes are varied as shown, the enhar- 
nomc note being uttered with some uncertainty, and the last 
e vei\ faintly. During one year, I did not hear the song 
