130 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
This year, 1912-13, the tui, whilst singing many beautiful 
short themes, whisper-songs, jangles, and runnels, seemed rather 
preparing for song; for he emitted more clicks , clacks , and 
gurrs than musical notes, sounding like the snapping and inter¬ 
mittent whirring of clockwork, as though his musical-box had 
been undergoing seasonal repairs, and was being tested prin¬ 
cipally as to its mechanism. 
The theme of (59) was heard in December, 1913, and again 
was only part of the song heard. The latter part was lower in 
pitch, more deliberate, and much louder, or rather much less 
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softly sung, than the opening. The theme occupied about three 
seconds in utterance. The whisper-song seems a much greater 
effort to the bird than the ordinary song: in this one the head 
was thrust well out and upwards, the feathers quivering round 
the whole throat and neck, and down to the breast : the beak 
was partly open at times, at times closed. 
The song (60) was heard at Kapiti in January, 1917. It was 
broken by the ordinary call, more reedy than bell-like, best 
reproduced, perhaps, by a clarinet. The whisper-song was 
nearer a warble than whistle or flute-note. The bird sang whilst 
a gale of wind swayed the karaka in whose branches he sat. 
The song was long-continued, the parts varying in position, as 
3312333213223: the tempo was about eight semiquavers a second. 
Many charming incidents of bird-life are seen whilst sitting 
below the great trees. The tui uses both the whisper-song and 
