125 
The Honey~eaters : The Tui 
(39). The opening and close of (40) related l o ( ) > 
the runnel itself, a common one, was quite differen . 
runnels, like the jangles, were sung during flight or immediately 
before or after, so that both series should possibly be considei e 
as one the runnels being the definite, the jangles the indefinite 
or less definite form of the series. These songs are sung morning 
and afternoon, as the tui moves about from tree to tree, looping 
the sunlight with bell-beads of song as he glides from shade to 
The evensong is remarkably like a vesper-bell, heard at a dis 
tance across a quiet landscape. The notes of (41), varied as in 
(42) were sounded singly, at regular intervals of two seconds 
on an average; that is, the note itself may have occupied a 
second or a little less, the rest a second, or a little more. e 
bird singing this perfect vesper often sat at the edge oi the bush, 
on the topmost jag of a dead totara, lifted well above the bi - 
lowed green of the bush below. The notes of (41) and (42) were 
taken in December, 1908; and in December, 1910, the notes were 
a d q, d. These vesper-bells, sung too at times by two or t ree 
birds separated by considerable stretches of bush-clad valley, 
sounding in the quiet of the evening, were most delightful 
hear There was no bush except in the one deep winding va ey, 
and the ridges and ranges of hills, with verdured slopes and 
rocky outcrops, lay folded in sunlight and shadow, the near 
flanks pink and yellow with the heavy flowering heads ot cocks¬ 
foot. At Kapiti, in December, 1916, the notes of the evensong 
were as in (43) (44). The notes were sounded at the rate o 
three in two seconds. The usual theme was a repetition ot (44) , 
