174 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
Some years since a critic, I think in one of the English 
magazines, remarked that Browning was wrong;—the notes 
were not a minor third, but a major fourth; but apparently 
the poet and the critic referred to notes at different seasons- 
Browning to notes of April, the critic to those of a later date. 
Watson writes (WW, p. 64) that the British cuckoo has, 
besides the ordinary notes which give its name, a distinct 
cry in addition, which “constitutes a love song, and may be 
represented by a succession of the initial syllables, cuck-cuck- 
euck -, dying away into a prolonged oo-o-o-o. This cry is uttered 
when flying, and the more deliberate and finished ‘ cuck-oo’ 
usually comes from the bird when perched on some rail or fence. ’ ’ 
Compare this with Hey wood’s couplets above. The vocalization 
of this love-song is almost the same as that of the cry of the blue 
petrel of New Zealand, which Buller writes consists of “three 
short notes repeated in rapid succession and followed by two 
long ones, thus: kuk-kiik-kuk-cdo-coo ”; he writes that “the note 
much resembles the cooing of pigeons.” I have never heard 
this cry. 
Both Yatejf and Taylor have confused the two New Zealand 
cuckoos in the matter of their song*. Yate/ (YN, pp. 64-5) gives 
an excellent description of the beautiful appearance of the bird— 
pipiwawaroa he calls it—“a small bird, of very beautiful 
plumage, in almost every variety; green, white, purple and gold 
are, however, the prevailing colours: the feathers under the tail 
are white, spotted w r ith brown: those on the breast and throat 
are marked with broad lines of white and deep brown; the 
wings are very delicate purple, tinged with gold. The eye is a 
piercing hazel. It has no song; is easily caught; and feeds 
upon the small insects found in the bark of the kauri tree.” 
This is good, save for the error regarding the song. 
Taylor says of the long-tailed cuckoo kohoperoa (TI, p. 405) 
**.H is a sweet singing bird, but is only heard during the 
warmest months of the year, when it sings all the 
night.” Of the shining cuckoo, called by him piwa- 
rauroa (ib., p. 406) **.It has a very peculiar shrill 
note. When first heard in August, its cry is feeble, 
