Bellbird Controversy

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 184, 2 May 1933, Page 11

Bellbird Controversy

Sir, —Regarding the note “A Bell-bird Controversy” in your issue of April 29, it is true that there are three birds apparently which utter bell notes—the tui, the korimako (bell-bird), and the kokako (orange and blue-wattled crows). The tui we know well, and the korimako. also known as makomako, but the former name is preferable to save confusion with the tree makomako (wineberry). The kokako, however, though once common, is now extinct in the South Island and rare iu tlie North. With it I am not personally acquainted, but I know that several people, among them my friend A. S. Wilkinson, Curator of Kapiti Sanctuary, credit the kokako with the bell notes. But as the kokako is almost numbered among our extinct birds, and as the tui is a mimic, the name bellbird, if applied to any bird, should be applied to the korimako. When Mr. Drummond’s correspondent says that “anybody who has spent many years in the back-country of New Zealand aud who knows these two species (kokako and korimako) well,, laughs at the idea of the makomako being called the bellbird; and, really, it is rather ridiculous,” he speaks from too limited knowledge. It is not safe to make such definite statements about bird-song. During the few r years I have listened to the songs of our New Zealand birds I have heard so many varieties of notes, extraordinary or beautiful, that I know there must bemany I have not heard. But: I hare heard, and watched while listening, both tui and korimako sing the bell-notes, many times and in various places. Out* New Zealand birds are not only wildwood singers; they are exquisite artists as well. In my book on bird-song I have recorded a number of these bell-notes, both of tui and korimako, giving pitch and interval, and describing the sounds. ’ Mr. Drummond" 1 refers tn Sir Walter Buller’s remarks on the bellbird, and io Edgar Stead’s. My book was equally open to him had he really wanted nil answer to his queries.—l am, etc.. JOHANNES C. ANDERSEN. Wellington, May 1.