192 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
within six feet whilst they sat feeding until they had stripped 
the heads, we standing by admiring them. For this pleasure 
I have to thank Mr. Wilkinson, the present caretaker nf 
Kapiti. 
I have heard the notes only of the red-fronted parrakeet 
The common note, as in (1), uttered both during flight and 
when sitting in the tree, is a quick chuckling cry, varying in 
pitch at different times, and sometimes in tempo in the course 
of the one call, as in (2), the first part being from six to eight 
semiquavers a second. The note has a broad, reedy sound, and 
tchu.tebu.tchu.tchu.tchu.tchu.tchu ^ tu.tu.tu.tu tu.tu tu tu tu tu 
r 4 ■■■ — 
Take me back 
Do be quick Do be quick 
tu.tu.tu tu.tu .tut Do be cjuick 
is usually near vocalization. This is especially noticeable in 
another call, consisting of three notes, as in (3). The notes of 
(3), vocalized Take me bach, and Do be quick, when higher in 
pitch, were often heard in the Stony Bay bush, Banks Peninsula, 
m 1907 and 1912; the vocalization was clearly Pretty Dick, 
when the notes, all b flat, were heard at Kapiti in 1916. These 
localizations indicate the reason for the common name, “Pretty 
Dick, ’ ’ applied to captive parrakeets. They also shew that, the 
natura] vocalizations of the bird-notes being comparatively close 
to those of human speech, the bird, if in the least imitative, 
cou d easily be taught to speak parrot-fashion. The large red- 
ronted parrakeet was taught more easily than the smaller 
ir s, and was a favourite cage-bird with the early colonists. 
. * eD _ a } characteristic note of the cage-bird may be 
heard m the midst of city life. Buller (BN, Vol. 1, p. 140) 
