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Toutouwai, the New Zealand Robin

New Zealand Birds | Birds | Gallery | New Zealand robin, Petroica australis Toutouwai, the New Zealand robin Generally speaking, says, Buller, in New Zealand, it is only on the outskirts of the woods that we meet with insessorial birds in any number. As we penetrate into the heart of the forest, the birds become fewer, till at length they almost entirely disappear. But there is one species, whose range seems to be quite without restraint: common enough in the open coppice, it is to be found also in the gloomiest and most secluded parts of the forest. I have been assured by officers who accompanied the celebrated Taranaki Expedition under Major–General Sir Trevor Chute, in 1866, that during that long and irksome march the Robin was the only bird that gave any sign of life to those interminable and gloomy forests through which the army passed. The lively twitter and song of smaller birds had ended with the first day’s march, the harsh cry of the Kaka, which had attended them far into the bush, had gradually ceased to be heard, and the wood pigeon, whose range extends to the summits of the low wooded ridges of the interior, was no longer to be met with. An oppressive silence reigned around them, broken only by the shrill chirp of the startled Robin as the advance guard cut a path for the troops through hitherto untrodden woods. Indeed the presence of this little bird was the only exception to the utter absence of animal life, and almost the only relief to the monotony of the march. Perched on a low branch, it might frequently be seen looking gravely down, as if in silent wonderment, on the weary ranks, as they toiled their way through this virgin forest in the very heart of the enemy’s country.

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