66 Bird-Song : and Neu) Zealand Song Birds 
and the notes were clear, sharp whistles, like those of the South 
Island bird, six to seven uttered in a second: the drop may at 
times include ten notes, occupying the same total interval. 
I have been told that the North Island bird is a fine songster, 
but I have never been so fortunate as to hear its song. I have 
heard a song begun as in (3), but it went no further. 
A song was begun as in (3), but went no further; and on 
another occasion a robin immediately overhead broke into a 
song, all too short, consisting only of the phrase in (4), 
repeated as a whole, or with only one triplet instead of two. 
The second note of the triplet was very faintly uttered, as if 
it were not quite a separate note, but a “catch in the voice; 
and at a distance the vocalization sounded simply ti tee-oo, oi 
ti ti tee-oo, the i short as in hit. It was a sharp, plaintive whistle, 
the plaintiveness coming in on the slur. The robin flew off, 
whistling now and again as it went,—when suddenly a white- 
head settled near by, and astonished me by singing, in sight 
and hearing, the theme of (5). The opening notes are the 
characteristic notes of the white-head; but the close is an 
exact reproduction of the robin’s phrase save for the curious 
soft final echoing of the slur, which I did not hear in the robin s 
song. It certainly seemed an instance of imitation of more, 
of exact reproduction ; for in hundreds of songs of the white- 
head,—and where the bird is, it sings unceasingly this was 
the onlv occasion on which I heard the robin s phrase 
reproduced. 
