Tui

[A]ll was quiet, beautiful, and serene; the only sounds which broke the calm were the wild notes of the tooe (or New Zealand blackbird), the splashing of our own oars, or the occasional flight of a wild duck (or shag), disturbed by our approach.

The most frequently visible of these feathered denizens of the forest is the Tui (Prostemadera novæ Zelandiæ), called 'the parson' by Captain [James] Cook, in consequence of its having two white feathers in the lower part of its neck resembling bands. In colour and shape it is very like the kingfisher, and its melodious notes present great variety.

Mr. Charles Enderby showed us a New Zealand Tui, or parson-bird, in a glass case, which he had kept alive in England for two years.

The Pigeon (Carpophaga Novæ Zealandiæ) and Tui or Parson Bird (Prosthemadera Novæ Zealandiæ) are certain also to become rare birds. Elsewhere on the run food-supply and breeding accommodation alike will have been swept clear. A few pair of each will nevertheless maintain themselves in the gorges. The Tui will then as now haunt the homestead and shelter-belts when in mid-winter the eucalypts break into flower.

But it was the Tui Marina end that lingers in the memory. It was haunted by tuis, great insolent Carusos, who would half throw a note and then break off in the middle in sheer delight at their own marvellousness or in sudden greed.

On these two large islands [New Zealand], the native biota lacks many angiosperm and insect groups found routinely elsewhere, and the native flowers (about 80% endemic) are strongly dominated by rather dull white generalist forms, with flies, small moths, and beetles visiting: there are just a few bee- and bird-pollinated examples (visited mainly by bellbirds and tuis), and no native butterfly flowers.