144 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
luxuriates; yet as an insect eater it is not without its value t 
the culturalist; in twisting* and turning amongst leaves a ! 
spray by spray it searches.it exhibits habits and ways that 
may be likened to those of a true creeper. In dull f 0 o>p T 
weather we well remember to have seen numbers of this bird 
twirling and climbing about the rampant intertwined cords 
of the muehlenbeckia that hung almost from the very top of a 
lofty tree, here the bell-birds were most busy in their insect- 
search, fluttering with half spread wings and swaying on the 
slender Ilians that hung pendant from the outspread branches. 
After moths and large insects on the wing we have often seen 
it fluttering heavily, noisily it may be said, yet wheeling with 
sufficient speed to ensure frequent captures. When on the 
ground, and it is not a bird that either travels afoot far or 
often, it progresses by a succession of hops, partially opening 
the^ wings the while, with jerky restless movements. 
In the beech forests of the Malvern district the korimako 
may be observed ascending the bole of some black-stemmed 
tree, to sip the viscid honey-drop that like a dew-sparkle hangs 
from the stiff waxlike thread thrust forth by the fleshy grub 
that lies hidden in the bark; it may be noticed that its mode of 
climbing differs from that of the kaka, kakariki, or tui, its 
progress upwards is accompanied by a slight flutter of the 
wings. In winter, the brief season of bird tameness, when some 
of the smaller of the feathered tribes have developed whole¬ 
some appetites, no longer cloyed or pampered with the rich 
pulp of well ripened berries, we have observed the bell-bird 
descend to the verandah, and scatter the hungry flock of blight 
biicls or white-eyes, that have been eagerly picking any fatty 
shreds or particles that may have been swept out from the 
precincts of the kitchen. 
To return for a moment to its position among the honey- 
eaters, when the phormium [flax] in the months of early spring 
sends up its lofty flower stems ranged around with tiers of 
orange-tinted blossoms, then the bell-bird and the tui indulge 
in ample honey feasts. It must have been in the spring of the 
year that ornithologists discovered the bell-bird with the 
