environment. All records in New Zealand to date have been from gardens and houses, it having never been found in unsettled areas. The third suborder, Laniatores, includes the majority of the New Zealand opilionids. A remarkable feature found in the New Zealand fauna is the preponderance of one family, the Triaenonychidae, considered the least specialised family of the suborder. The tarsal claws of legs 3 and 4 are single, but in the adult possess two lateral branches. In the South African genera Roeweria and Speleomontia, and the New Zealand Sorensenella, the lateral branches are well developed, but the median prong is greatly reduced. By complete reduction of the median prong the double claw found in the more specialised families Phalangodidae and Assamiidae was possibly developed. Except for one possibly erroneous record, neither of these families has been found in New Zealand. The general distribution of the triaenonychids is of interest. They are practically limited to the southern areas of the world. Of the 67 genera known, the distribution is as follows: North America 1, South America 2, South Africa 24, Madagascar 6, New Caledonia 2, Australia 19, and New Zealand 12, the only occurrence in the Northern Hemisphere being the one genus from North America. From the present figures the family would appear to have attained its greatest development in South Africa. However, only in New Zealand are representatives of all three sub-orders found and when the fauna is completely worked it seems probable that the greatest development of this family will be seen to be in Australia and New Zealand. Of the twelve genera at present recorded from New Zealand, nine are endemic. While a number of New Zealand species are placed in the typically South African genus Adaeum, the main affinities are undoubtedly with Australia and the Sub-Antarctic Islands. The distribution of the subfamily Triaenobuninae includes only New Zealand and Australia, and while no genera of this subfamily are found common to both areas, the widespread New Zealand genus Pristobunus is closely related to Dipristes of Victoria and possibly to Peckhamius of Tasmania. In the suborder Triaenonychinae, the dominant New Zealand genus Nuncia of which thirteen endemic species are recorded, occurs also on the Auckland and Crozet Islands, on which two islands they represent the entire known opilionid fauna, and a further species is known from New South Wales, Australia. The closely related genus Nunciella is also found in both Australia and New Zealand, but its greatest development is in Australia. It is once again evident that the relationship shown is with the eastern portion of Australia. To summarise: All of the native New Zealand species of opiliones are endemic. Only one species has been introduced by man. The New Zealand opilionid fauna is characterised by the occurrence of a comparatively large number of those forms which are to be considered primitive. Some, for example those of the Cyphopthalmi, show affinities with South Africa, while others, for example Zeopsopilio, show close affinity with South America and to a lesser degree with South Africa. The presence of these primitive forms, taken into consideration with the absence of the most highly specialised families, would seem to point to the isolation of New Zealand in the remote past before the development of the more advanced forms. The persistence of these animals would be assisted by the presence of extensive forest areas, the leaf mould of which presents an ideal environment. The more advanced opiliones found in New Zealand of the families Phalangiidae and Triaenonychidae show a very strong relationship with those found on Tasmania and the East Coast of Australia, a relationship which could be considered as evidence for a comparatively recent interchange of forms between these two areas.

Problems Relating to the Birds of New Zealand's Offshore Islands By E. G. Turbott, M.Sc., Museum, Auckland. This short paper is an elaboration of part of my account of the birds of Little Barrier Island, which is to appear in the July, 1947, issue of New Zealand Bird Notes. There I have referred to certain ecological conditions affecting the birds of island forests, and emphasised that these birds are not typical of forests on the mainland before European settlement. The problem is essentially ecological,