Birds and their Songs

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 276, 22 November 1935, Page 10

Birds and their Songs

A fascinating talk about birds was given to Wellington Itotarians recently by Mr 'Johannes 'Andersen. Many people, he said, went through life deaf and blind, and his object was to draw attention to what was going oa around them so that they could get more enjoyment out of their environment. Birds and plants went together, but one reason why people did not take interest it: me latter was because they had no common names by which they might be talked about.

Mr Andersen paid tribute to the value of imported birds which had made possible big yields of grain, and yet people talked about destroying them. Most New Zealand song birds, lie said, had themes which were woven into regular tunes. They used the same scale as that used by humans, which scale, lie maintained, was not a human invention. The speaker’s whistling ot various bird songs was highly appreciated by Jiis listeners, so was iiis remark that sparrows in their behaviour were very much like Itotarians. A iinal story was about a tui, which is well know)’ as a mimic, imitating a lady's cough and ultimately her remark, “I do feel bad."'