The Honey-eaters : The Tui 
129 
song (54) sounding almost like a peal of tiny mellow swiftly 
swinging bells, took under two seconds in utterance : in this, as in 
others, the sequence of the notes constantly varied, but so many 
of the themes are so definite that there must be scores or hun¬ 
dreds in the bird ’s repertoire, unless he is a consummate extem¬ 
porizer, able to remember his intricate extemporizations. The 
phrase (55) was almost a bell-jangle rather than a whisper 
song, the latter being an octave higher in pitch than the former. 
This theme was heard a great many times, and many of the 
others were repeated so often as to become quite familiar. 
2 8 ™ 
f\ p m J 
\J * 9 fc 
*01 
0 • 4 
r. 4 
^ . 
V ’ l> 
PPP 8 
66 
A PPP 8 
/ 
2 - 8 ™. . 
trem. 
p PPP A 
—r 
m 
click 
aah oo 
In (56), a beautiful phrase, there was a curious click up to the 
<i, which was a sustained tremolo. 
There was a similar final note in (57) ; it sweetened and died 
away into silence. In this song the click, like a sharp catch in 
the breath, broke into the song. 
The opening note of (58) was extremely peculiar, and was 
heard only on this day, 2nd January, 1913. It was aah-oo, 
breathed only, with vibrating uvula;—exactly like a gargle, in 
fact as if the bird’s gargle mellowed its throat for the song 
following. The last note was most staccato, being barely touched. 
They were usually sung very quickly—from five to ten quavers 
a second. Were it not for the fact that many of them were 
often repeated, one would almost suppose the songs to be beyond 
the bird’s volition; they were like an escape, a running over, 
from a full treasury of sound-jewels. 
