Bird Ventriloquists, Mimics, Songsters

Northern Advocate, 24 May 1949, Page 5

Bird Ventriloquists, Mimics, Songsters

The Moderator of the Presbyterian 1 Church of New Zealand (the Rt Rev. C. J. Tocker, of Invercargill) has two hobbies.

They are dry-fly fishing and bifd watching. Today he told Whangarei Rotarians something about the latter, deafffig mainly with the song of birds.. '(!%

It was one of-the most remarkable features in natural life, he said, that a tiny form of life like a bird should have the ability to sing.

SIMILAR VOICE ORGANS When when Mr Tocker said “sing,” he meant “sing,” for, he explained, a bird sings and does not whistle. Birds have voice organs just as human beings, and almost precisely the same.

Here are some other points mentioned by Mr Tocker: The kingfisher is much more preva- ' lent in the North than in the South, The North Island fantail sings much

louder than the South Island fantail. The lest way to distinguish between the song of the thrush and that of the blackbird is to remember that the former is the soprano and- the latter the contralto. * ' TUI AND BELLBIRD The thrush learns its song note by note and bar by bar. The gift of mimicry is-very marked in the bird world. ~ v "

It is. impossible to distinguish the call of the tui from that of the bellbird if the birds are not visible. Each has a distinctive song, but they mimic each other and every other bird in the forest so much that it is impossible to tell which is which without the aid of eye. 1 INTEREST AT BACK DOOR Many birds have the power of ventriloquism, the thrush and the shining cuckoo to an extraordinary degree. "There is real interest round your back door,” Mr Tocker said, referring to the enrichment of mind and heart he had received over the- years from his study of birds. “You don’t have to go further than the streets of your own town with your eyes and ears open to add such enrichment to your life.”