‖ tui
(ˈtuːiː)
[Maori name.]
A New Zealand bird, Prosthematodera novæ-zelandiæ: = parson-bird 1, mocking-bird 2 f.
| 1832 A. Earle Narr. Residence in N.Z. 174 The only sounds which broke the calm were the wild notes of the tooe (or New Zealand blackbird). 1835 [see mocking-bird 2 f]. 1857, 1866 [see parson-bird 1]. 1869 G. H. Kingsley Sport & Trav. iv. (1900) 64 Singing birds, some like the New Zealand tui. 1884 Bracken Lays Maori 101, I hear the swell Of Nature's psalms through tree and bush, From tui, blackbird, finch and thrush. 1908 Auckland Weekly News 17 Dec. 50/1 It is only occasionally that the silence is broken by the liquid notes of the tui and the bell-bird. |