112 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
the bird’s cry; and Potts apparently was inclined to share this 
opinion, as he heads his chapter on this bird ‘‘kia, kea, or sheep- 
killer” (PO, p. 184). It is also spelt kia by James Collier (CO 
p. 225). ’ 
Of several common names the origin is now lost, such are 
lark, which in Danish and German is laerke and lerche, but 
alouette in French; and thrush, with its variant throstle, 
diossel in Danish and German, and grive in French. 
The tui appears to be the only bird named from that com¬ 
monest of all bird notes ,—tin or tui ;—the former when slurred 
downwards, the latter when slurred upwards. The blue 
mountain duck is named wliio in Maori from its whistling cry. 
and the call of the British wigeon is wheo, from which” it is 
named the whew-duck. The cry of the whinchat is u-tick, and 
this is also the cry of the New Zealand fern-bird. 
. The tui.— Bluish or greenish-black, with white streaks on 
the back of the neck, and a white spot on each wing. Throat 
. . ~ --u »viui two tufts of white curly feathers. Eye dark 
brown. The sexes are alike. The young are slaty-black with 
a light patch on the breast. Bill and feet blackish-brown 
Total length 12f in., of which the tail is 5 in. 
Eggs. Three or four; white or rosy, speckled or mottled 
more or less with brown of various shades. Length about l^in., 
breadth 4 in. The eggs vary in shape and coloration. 
Ae.J. Built m a cup formed by small branches, in a thick 
clump of side-shoots, or in a not too dense thicket of supple¬ 
jack and other bush vines, twenty to thirty feet from the 
ground; sometimes lower. A rather large structure, composed 
o dry twigs intermixed with coarse green moss, the cavity 
neatly lined with fibrous grasses, or with the black hair-like 
substance from frond-stems of tree-ferns. A nest in a tree- 
manuka on Kapiti was built about twelve feet from the ground. 
As foundation a number of much-branched manuka sprays 
were laid between forks and on branches affording horizontal 
support, forming a platform on which the nest was built; this 
v as composed principally of grass, very loosely put together. 
