66 BIRD LIFE ON ISLAND AND SHORE 
we came to the conclusion that some of the notes 
were aS mellow as those of the English Thrush. 
Sometimes, too, the song recalled that of the 
Canary before it breaks into trill; sometimes it 
resembled the beginning of the English Robin’s 
song. There were interrogative notes like the 
high parts of the Grey Warbler’s pipe, and more 
rarely a sibilant note. ‘These outpourings, as I 
have said, lasted up to twenty minutes, with only 
brief intervals of silence whilst the bird changed 
its perch—twenty minutes be it noted, not esti- 
mated by guess-work but timed by watch. I 
cannot indeed but think that these Robins of the 
Poverty Bay back country may have been specially 
gifted, for otherwise the reputation of the North 
Island Robin would have swallowed the reputation 
of all other New Zealand singing birds, as the rods 
of Aaron swallowed those of the magicians of 
Pharaoh. Such music once heard could never 
have been forgotten; field naturalists of early 
days could not have overlooked it. Fifteen or 
twenty minutes of uninterrupted song are wood- 
land episodes too rare and sweet not to impress 
themselves indelibly on the listener’s mind. ‘That 
this clan of North Island Robins was endowed 
beyond the average was certainly corroborated 
by my experience in Little Barrier. There the 
Robin’s song, though pleasant and though superior 
+o that of the South Island species, never reached 
