THE MUSIC OF BIRDS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19669, 12 July 1929, Page 2

THE MUSIC OF BIRDS.

NEW ZEALAND SONGSTERS. A rare and charming address wma given to the Canterbury Branch of the New Zealand Historical Association last evening by Mr Johannes C. Andersen, Director of the Turnbull Library, Wellington, on "The Songs of Native Birds." Mr Andersen, who has made a hobby of studying the habits and peculiarities of New Zealand birds, was introduced by Dr. J. Hight, Rector of Canterbury College. The great difference between English and New Zealand birds, said Mr Andersen, lay in the fact that the former never repeated their songs, while the latter sang the same theme over and over again. We had a beginning of art song in our native songsters, and that they possessed a scale waa an undoubted fact. All New Zealand birds, however, did not siag according to seale. There were two species of the grey warbler, the bush type, which sang a long and indeterminate song like that of English birds, and the type that ia heard in the towns, which whistled a definite phrase. These were found in both islands. The ground creeper of the South Inland sang in choruses, every bird singing the same air, a by no means simple one. Birds sometimes used the same phrases as humans, and Mr Anderses realistically demonstrated instances of itoch similarities among the bell-birda. Birds of two species, such as the tui and the bell-bird, actually sang duets. The tui was a great mimic and would rarely sing his natural songa without brewing into them Aith th» harsh notes picked np from outsids sources. He interspersed these with his most beautiful songs. In the morning chorus in the bush all the birds sang notes of the common chord. First of all the tuis would call from distant valleys. The bell-bird would join the chores with a highpitched note, another would join in, another and another, until as many as four or five different parts would be going simultaneously. The other email birds would commence jast before the dawn. The most beautiful melodies were those of the bell-bird. A curious thing was that most of the songs came from the female bird, but when the male bird did bnrst into song, there was nothing else like it. There waa genuine feeling in the notes which resembled those of a contralto. The New Zealand birds were true songsters and there was pleasure in store for many to go into the bnsh and listen to their music.