Reading for Everybody.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2544, 3 July 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

Reading for Everybody.

THE NEW ZEALAND PARSON BIRD. SOME OF ITS PECULIARITIES. Mr. TV. TV. Smith, of- New Zealand, recently addressed the following communication to the London “Spectator:” Sir.—ln the excellent review of Mr. Lea’s new work, “The Romance of Bird Life,” published in the literary supplement to the “Spectator” of November 7th, 1908, your reviewer stated: “But the past-master in the art of playing the fool is the parson bird of New Zealand.” My copy of Mr. Lea’s book not being to hand, I cannot refer to his notes on our native tui, or parson bird. The reviewer, however, has aptly and accurately expressed one phase of the nature this classic merrymaker of the New Zealand forests. From a remote period the Maoris have caged and taught the tui (pronounced “too-ee”) as merrymakers in the kaingas or villages. The well-trained birds were generally the property of chiefs, who kept them suspended in front of their finely carved houses, and prized them highly. When the young birds were able to feed themselves, they were taken and suspended close to a waterfall, where they heard no other sound -but the voice of the teacher shouting a'ond the words or sentence, he desired to teach them. Judging from my own experiences with these charming birds in captivity, it must have been a tedious, and at times a time-killing process. The Maoris, however, aver that it was a quicker and surer method of teaching the young tuis than the one alternative of confiniiig them to a lonely and silent wharo or house until they finished their “schooling.” Before the training began, either by the noisy waterfall or the silent whare, the birds had to submit to a little ceremony. Being honeyeaters, they have a tongue furnished with a very fine hair brush, which they use in removing the nectar from the forest flowers on which they chiefly subsist during the spring and summer months. To enable the l birds to talk better, the Maoris have for ages practised the habit of clipping this minute brush off their tongues. To me. the tui’s natural ability to “speak” or sing is not improved by the process. A ' lady residing in Wanganui possesses a fine male which she took from a nest in Kai-iwi Bush and reared and taught it herself. The bird whistles the first bar of “Coming through the Rye” and calls “Haeremai” (come here) perfectly without the “feather” being removed t from its tongue. Numerous addition- , al cases could be cited proving the tui’s ; perfect ability to repeat both English • and Maori sentences and whistle Eng- j lisb and Maori songs without loss of the j tongue feather. • i With a view to noting and recording accurately all phases in the earlier ! •transitional stages of plumage of both/ sexes of young, parson birds, and, if possible, also to procure full and perfect gramophone records of their melodious, resonant, and varied notes and calls, I procured and reared two nests of them this season. Both were built on strong limbs of pinus insignis, which. I. may note, are the only instances known to me of the tuis building their nests in any introduced species of pinetree. For the first fifteen days they are gent'e and contented nestlings, and feed freely from the hand. The plumage is jet-black, with rich purplish iridescence, which, with the bright orange-colored fleshy core of the mouth, render them conspicuous and beautiful objects in their nest. After leaving tlmir nest at about fifteen days old, they become impatient and noisy, with a rapidly increasing appetite. I have attended them regularly myself, _ and when approaching them have invariably whistled in imitation some bugle-like notes, which greatly excite them, and bring them skipping and screaming over the floor of their house to the door to he fed. At from four to five weeks old they are able to feed themselves, and become very .active on their r>erelies. A fortnight later they begin “playing the fool” by quarrelling., whi'st each at times indulges in curious individual antics. The “white choker”—-the tuft of long white silky feathers which grow and adorn the front of the neck—now begin to appear, and is full grown and perfect when they are five months old. “Play- : ing the fool” at the age of -six or seven weeks also consists of raising and rapidly fluttering the wings, meanwhile screaming and skipping in concert on tiptoe along their perches or over the floor of their house. They now also begin. to exercise and train and tune their voice. When thus engaged every feather is ruffled, the wings drooped, and "the whole body is in active motion. Some of. the piccolo-like notes uttered in their first efforts to sing are very fine, and increase in volume and tone more day by day. The rich, resonant tolling notes reverberating through the forests attain their full volume of sound with the development of the neck plumes, when they may bo - said to have attained to “holy orders. The vivacity and versatility, together with the exceptionally keen gift of mimicry, which they now display are perhaps no.t equalled by any known species of passerine bird. Of the six birds I reared I liberated three, and have kept three fine-voiced males, with which with care, I hope to obtain gopd results on the lines I have mentioned. When not feeding or sleeping, they are continuously grimacing and hustling and fooling with each other. The coming of the long-tailed cuckoo to New Zealand every springtime from the. warmer Polynesian islands is a great source of trouble to the parson bird. The cuckoo’s attempts to steal the tui’s eggs and substitute its own are considered to be ® very serious crime by the tuis. The moment a cuckoo is sighted the tui’s war-note is sounded, with the result that all its kindred near-by fly in hot pursuit of the invader. Early in December last I observed three tuis chasing a cuckoo across a lake in the direction of a large pine tree. The cuckoo’s more rapid flight soon outdistanced the pursuing tuis. Oh reaching the tree the cuckoo dashed through the branches, and when on the opposite side of the tree swiftly rose at an acute angle and took refuge on the top of the tree. The excited tuis following dashed to and ' fro amongst the branches uttering angrv notes to no purpose. Thus the koheperoa of the Maori during its an,nua' sojourn in New Zealand several times a day deoeives and makes fools of the tuis, —real fools. _ j In addition to playing the Too/ a al- / most every conceivable way, the parson, ‘ "birds occasionally play the “clown”/, very uerfect’y. When resting on their smooth perch in captivity, they at times swing once or twice round tho perch as if indulging in trapeze oxer--cise. At other times they may be seen imitating some graceful lady performer cn a tightrope. There is no question

• ■ u : V‘u': 1 \ ■at that the IK.VI • 'il, habit/. 1 ;:uci :u tics of the New Zealand parson bir are remarkable, and quite uniqu among birds. I am glad to state tha as the glorious native forests disappear as one of the inevitable results of sel tlement in a new country,' the charm ing and sprightly tui feels the chang 'ess than some other species do, an< lingers longest in. or comes from th distant bush to, gardens where th more richly melliferous trees are ii bloom. Their melodious and far-eclic ing notes, are frequently heard in man; of the pretty gardens in New Ply mouth. That they may be long heari here and throughout the land is th wish of all lovers of New Zealand’s re markable and unique native birds.