Transactions.

Considering these facts, and particularly the extreme scarcity of the New Zealand rat, the discovery of a genuine specimen is an interesting event in our local natural history. A small rat recently caught on Mr. Owen's estate, at Wangaehu, and forwarded to me “in the flesh,” has been identified by the Maoris of this district (where it was formerly very abundant) as the veritable Kiore Maori. I have accordingly preserved the animal entire, in spirits, and it is now deposited in the Colonial Museum. If (as seems highly probable) this rat should prove to be new to science, I propose to distinguish it as Mus Novœ Zelandiœ; and in order to place on record a description available for reference and comparison, I beg to offer the following notes, being the result of my examination of the fresh specimen.

Fur above bluish black; sides of nose, chin, throat, and underside of body and inner sides of limbs uniform bluish grey; ears, feet and tail dark brown; soles flesh brown. The ears are large, rounded and naked, and the fur covering the body is soft and glossy. The tail is elongate, scaly, and covered with minute spinous hairs. The upper side of both fore and hind feet covered with minute soft hairs, lengthening at the extremity of the toes, and curving over the claws, which are short, arched, sharp, brown in their basal portion and horn coloured at the tip. The fur of the back and sides with abundant lengthened hairs, but scarcely more rigid than the under fur; no long hairs on the under parts. Whiskers numerous, slender, flexible, the longest measuring two inches. Eyes moderate. The cutting teeth are yellow and perfectly smooth in front, the lower ones narrow, somewhat compressed and rounded in front. In certain lights the fur of the back has a purplish metallic lustre.

Adult female: six lateral ventral teats (three on each side); no pectoral teats.

Unlike the common rat, this animal is perfectly free from odour or smell of any kind, which is probably due to the nature of its food, this consisting almost entirely of fruits and berries. At first glance it has more the appearance of a gigantic mouse than of a true rat; and on closer examination it presents a marked resemblance to the black rat (Mus rattus), which was formerly abundant in Britain, a phytophagous animal, feeding chiefly on herbs and seeds. As all naturalists are aware, this species has, in like manner to the New Zealand rat, become almost extinct in the British Isles, where it once abounded in great numbers. “Whether,” writes Macgillivray, “the destruction of this animal has been effected by the larger and more ferocious brown rat, or like that of many tribes of the human species, has resulted from

the diminution of food, caused by the overwhelming increase of an unfriendly race, it is impossible to determine. It has, indeed, been alleged by many naturalists, that the brown rat has actually worried to death its less powerful relative; and, although this is mere conjecture, it is by no means improbable if we consider the character of that audacious animal, which has been known, when hard pressed, to attack even one of the lords of creation, when unusually hungry to gnaw the flesh of his defenceless offspring, and, when famished, to kill and devour its own kind.”^*.

[This rat resembles Mus fuscipes of Waterhouse and Darwin (Zool. of Voyage of H. M. S. “Beagle,” Vol. i., p. 66), which inhabits the southern part of the Australian continent. This rat is said to be not uncommon on board steamers trading between New Zealand and that country, and maintains its position against the brown Norway rat (M. decumanus); the two species have been known to occupy different parts of the same ship.

An ocherous-coloured rat (a drawing of which, from a specimen in the Auckland Museum, has been forwarded by Captain Hutton), was obtained in New Zealand by Mr. J. Thorpe, in January, 1853, and appears to represent, in this country, a species introduced from Australia (M. Gouldi), from the Sydney district. (See Illustration.)

The illustration of the rat described by Mr. Buller is taken from a specimen preserved in spirits. The drawing supplied by Captain Hutton is taken from a stuffed specimen, and the following descriptive notes were sent with it:—

7. Naultinus pacificus, Gray.

Pale brown with irregular dark brown cross-bands and a dark streak on each side; front lower labial shield very larg; the chin granular; scales uniformly granular, rather larger before and behind the vent.

The Common Tree Lizard. Moko-Papa of the natives.

8. Naultinus elegans, Gray.

Green, rather paler beneath; back sometimes varied with dark-edged white or yellowish spots; lower lips white; toes moderate; tail with a transverse series of compressed scales at each side of the base.

Green Lizard of the colonists. Kakariki of the natives.

Very beautiful varieties of this lizard are sometimes met with. A. specimen, in the collection of the British Museum, has “a streak along the under lip, the ears, two arched stripes on the top of the head, irregular shaped spots on each side of the back and hind legs, an interrupted streak along each side of the body and tail, white, with a narrow black edge.”

In some specimens there are only faint indications of these markings, while in others there is merely a lunate spot of pale yellow on each side of the crown. An example which I obtained many years ago, at Kaipara, had a stripe of golden yellow down the centre of the back, and a double series of transverse elliptical spots, on a ground of delicate pea green. A live specimen which I kept for several months, and which presented only a few obsolete yellow marks on the back, gave birth to three young ones, each differently marked but all having the double series of bright dorsal spots.

The purplish tinge noticed by Dr. Gray, in his description of the young, is only discoloration caused by the spirits. In fresh examples the green, although of different shades, is always pure.

This lizard, on being molested, emits a peculiar chattering sound, which the natives term “laughing” (kata), and of which they have a widespread superstitious dread. The “laugh” of a green lizard is enough to terrify the bravest warrior, and its occult power for evil is strangely believed in by all the tribes in every part of the country. The reptile itself, whether dead or alive, is an object of universal fear among them. Sir George Grey, in his very interesting Account of an Expedition through the Interior, 1849–50, states:— “I have seen twenty or thirty able-bodied men fly in a state of the most abject fright, and even take to the water, when pursued by a child with the dead body of a common green lizard in its hands.”

9. Naultinus Grayii, Bell.

Green, paler beneath, sometimes varied with white spots; toes elongate; tail with four ovate, convex scales, forming an arched series on each side of the base.

In characterizing this species, as distinct,^* Mr. Bell remarks that it greatly resembles Naultinus elegans, but adds:—“Upon a comparison of the two however, I find that they differ in the following particulars. In the present species the head is concave between the eyes and forwards nearly to the snout; in the other this part is quite plain; the scales of the head in this species are flat; in the other they are convex. The colour of this species is uniformly green, whereas N. elegans has several markings of a yellow colour, each distinctly bordered with black.” In the Cat. Brit. Mus., Dr. Gray records an example of this species, from Mr. Egerley's collection, as being “green, with three ovate white spots on each side of the back.”

10. Naultinus punctatus, Gray.

Dark green, with very small scattered black specks, the size of a granule; beneath yellow-green; pre-anal pores in a triangular patch, with two series of pores under each thigh.

11. Naultinus sulphureus, Buller.

Uniform colour bright sulphur yellow, darker on the upper parts; abdomen bounded on each side by obsolete spots of paler yellow, dotted with black on the margins. There is a similar obsolete mark, 3 lines in extent, on each side of the crown. Soles of the feet pale brown. The granular scales are larger and more smoothly set than in N. punctatus; abdominal and pre-anal scales also larger. Interior of mouth dark blue.

Total length 6½ inches. From extremity of lower jaw to the vent 2.9 in.; thence to extremity of tail 3.6.

Hab.—Rotorua, North Island.

This fine species was discovered by Dr. Hector, during a visit, in company with His Excellency Sir George Grey, to the hot springs, Rotorua, in 1866. The original specimen is now deposited in the Colonial Museum, but it has unfortunately become partially discoloured. Other examples of this rare lizard have since been obtained.

The discovery is an interesting one, because it affords a fresh example of that mysterious natural law which adapts the colour of certain animals to the character of their habitat, for purposes of concealment and defence. This bright sulphur-coloured lizard lives in a region remarkable for its solfataras, silicious deposits, and sulphur crusts. Dr. Hochstetter, in his graphic account of the Rotorua Lake district, informs us that all around Pohuteo there are extensive sulphur deposits, and that in Arikiroa Bay, the yellow hue of the sulphur crusts which cover the ground, is visible at a great distance. He describes Tikitere as a whole valley of solfataras, bubbling mud pools, sulphur ponds, and hot springs, the ground around being covered with silicious

deposits and sulphur crusts, and the atmosphere impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen.

The law of assimilative colouring, which, by affording protection to otherwise defenceless species, plays an important part in the struggle for life that is ever going on around us, is thus exemplified in the present instance.—The bright green tints of Naultinus elegans, enable it almost to defy detection amidst the evergreen foliage of Leptospermum and other shrub; the marbled brown skin of N. pacificus is peculiarly adapted for concealment, as it clings motionless to the bark of a tree or hides in the crevices; and, in like manner, the colour of N. sulphureus seems specially fitted for a lizard inhabiting a sulphur-crusted and pumicestone region like the one described by Hochstetter.

12. Naultinus granulatus, Gray.

Pale brown, with irregular darker cross bands, with white edges in front; scales granular, moderate, those of under side larger; labial shields gradually smaller.

This species was originally noticed by Dr. Gray (App. Dieff. N.Z.), as a mere variety of Naultinus pacificus, but he has since admitted it to a distinct rank. The form appears to me of very doubtful specific value.

Naultinus brevidactylus and N. maculatus (Gray, MSS.) are probably mere varieties of the typical species, which is subject to much variation.

Genus Sphenodon.

13. Sphenodon punctatum, Sclater (=Hatteria punctata, Gray).

Olivaceous brown; sides and limbs with minute white specks; beneath yellowish grey; the spines of the nuchal and dorsal crests yellow, of the caudal brown; scales of the back, head, tail and limbs small, granular, nearly uniform; the irregular folds of the skin fringed at the top with a series of rather large scales; an oblique ridge of large scales on each side of the base of the tail, and a few shorter longitudinal ridges of rather smaller ones on each side of the upper part of the tail.

The sexes vary both in size and colour. The male is considerably smaller than the female, and the skin is of a brighter olive, yellowish on the under parts.

In the Philosophical Transactions for 1867, there is a very elaborate and exhaustive paper by Dr. Albert Günther, on the anatomy of this species; and an interesting paper on the same subject, by Dr. Knox, appears in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 1869.

This is the Tuatara or Tuatete of the natives. I had a pair of live ones in my possession for many months, but could never induce them to eat. They were sluggish in their movements, and when molested uttered a low, croaking note. The male measured 13½ inches, and the female 16 inches. They were

obtained on the small island of Karewa, in the Bay of Plenty, where this large lizard is still very plentiful, although it is well-nigh extinct on the mainland. Mr. Gilbert Mair, from whom I received them, furnished the following interesting notes:—” It was just daylight when we reached the island, and the Titis and other birds poured out of their nests underground in thousands. The whole place is completely honeycombed with their burrows, and you cannot move two steps without sinking to the knees in them. The tuataras are very plentiful. They live in holes under the big rocks, and can be only got at by digging. I suspect that, during a part of the year at least, they subsist largely on birds' eggs.”

Mr. Sclater, the Secretary of the Zoological Society, in an article contributed to Nature (June 23, 1870), notices the acquisition, by purchase, of a living example of this remarkable lizard, and refers to it as the only one that had reached England alive since the publication of Dr. Günther's admirable paper in the Philosophical Transactions (Part ii., 1867). This is evidently a mistake; for in the early part of last year, Dr. Hector forwarded, under care of Sir George Grey, a pair of live tuataras (male and female), one of which reached the Zoological Gardens in safety, and was afterwards figured in the Illustrated London News. These specimens were obtained by Mr. Gilbert Mair, together with those sent to me, on the Island of Karewa, above referred to, which he describes as distant about nine miles from Tauranga, about two acres in extent, and composed of large masses of scoria loosely jumbled together.

The Bay of Plenty natives assert that those found on the Rurima Rocks are of a different kind; and Mr. Mair adds, of his own knowledge, that those inhabiting East Cape Islet, about fifty miles to the eastward of Opotiki, are of a “bright green colour.”

This reptile, which differs in some important structural characters from every other known saurian, and in its osteology is the most bird-like of extant lizards, was first described and figured by Dr. Gray under the name of Hatteria punctata, and has been generally designated so till lately, when (as Mr. Sclater informs us) “it was most fortunately discovered, that the generic term of Sphenodon had been previously applied to a specimen of its skull in the Museum of the College of Surgeons.” This term has accordingly been substituted for Hatteria, which Mr. Sclater denounces as “vile and barbarous.”

All the New Zealand genera of lizards have been re-named by Dr. L. J. Fitzinger, of Vienna, but I have thought it best to adhere to Gray's nomenclature. To prevent further confusion, however, I will give here the generic equivalents, viz.:—Eulampus, Fitz.= Hiulia, Gray; Lampropholis, Fitz.= Mocoa, Gray; Hoplodactylus, Fitz. = Naultinus, Gray. I ought also to mention that I have omitted from my list, a species of “house-gecko,” described by

3. The Weka (Ocydromus australis) is by no means “the largest kind of rail in New Zealand.” The Notornis discovered by Mr. Mantell, in 1850, is more than twice the size of the largest weka. But the author contradicts himself by stating, in another place, that the Notornis Mantelli (Owen) is “the largest known rail in the world.”

4. The Land Rail (Rallus assimilis) is incorrectly described as a bird “of a ferruginous colour.” It closely resembles the banded rail (Rallus pectoralis), of Australia, as may be seen by inspecting the numerous examples in the Colonial Museum.

5. Under the head of Falconidæ, the author places “Falco Novœ Zelandiœ vel Circus Gouldii.” Two birds belonging to distinct genera are thus associated as synonymes. The description evidently refers to the Harrier (Circus Gouldii).

6. In treating of the so-called “Night-hawk,” the author has confused the nomenclature, for there is no such bird known as Hieracidea Novœ Zealandiœ Gouldii.

H. Novœ Zelandiœ is the Karewarewa, and Circus Gouldii the Kahu, of the natives.

7. There is no such Owl as Athene albifrons. The author evidently refers to A. albifacies, or Whekau of the natives.

8. Heteralocha Gouldi, the rare and beautiful Huia. The author omits the specific name, and the description of the bird is outrageously inaccurate. The tail contains twelve feathers, not four as stated; the bill is ivory white, not “bright yellow.” It is the female that has the long, slender, curved bill, and not the male, and vice versa. The legs are black with a tinge of blue on their edges, and not “bright yellow.” This bird certainly moves by a succession of hops, but I have failed to detect the resemblance of such movement to “that of the kangaroo.”

9. It is true that the Tui (Prosthemadera Novœ Zelandiœ) becomes extremely fat at certain seasons of the year, but I entirely dissent from the assertion, that “when uncomfortably fat it pecks its breast and causes the oil to exude.”(!) The account of its breeding habits also is incorrect, viz.: that it breeds three times in the year, laying in September three eggs, in December five, and in March, or autumn, six or seven “pure white eggs.” The tui breeds only once a year, and lays generally three, and never more than four, eggs, which are white with obscure brown markings at the larger end, and minute widely scattered spots.

10. The Kotihe (Pogonornis cincta) is incorrectly described as having “a tuft of white feathers on either cheek and wing.” The male of the species has an erective tuft of snow white feathers on each side of the head, but not on the cheek. There are no “white tufts” on the wings, but the secondary quills at their base, and their coverts, are white.

11. It is true that the Korimako (Anthornis melanura) has a brush tongue

and is a honey eater, but it nevertheless does not belong to the genus Trichoglossus, which is a group of honey-eating parrots. The breeding habits of this species are also misrepresented, for I can endorse the following remark by Mr. Potts, in his excellent paper on the nidification of New Zealand birds (Trans. N. Z. Inst., Vol. ii, p. 56),—“We must have peered into scores of nests, in various parts of the country, but we have never yet been fortunate enough to encounter such a prize as one containing ‘seven eggs, spotted with blue, upon a brown ground,’ ascribed to this bird by the Rev. R. Taylor.” The eggs of this species are generally four in number, white with a pinkish tinge and with reddish-brown spots, more numerous at the larger end.

12. The Matata (Sphenœacus punctatus) has a graduated, acuminate tail, and not “a tail composed of four long and four short feathers.”

13. Under the head of “Troglodytinœ,” there is a confusion of scientific names, and errors so obviously typographical that it would be unfair to hold the author responsible for them, except as regards the supervision of the printer's sheets.

14. By Miro albifrons, the author evidently means Petroica albifrons. “Miro” is a native name. It was adopted by M. Lesson, in 1831, to distinguish the genus, but the name did not stand, being superseded in the following year by Mr. Swainson's genus Petroica.

15. There is no such bird as Muscipeta Toitoi. The author probably refers to Petroica toitoi.

16. The Tieke (Creadion carunculatus) has a vermilion wattle, or caruncle, pendent from the angle or corner of the mouth, on each side, and not “on either side of the head,” as described.

17. Aplonis Zelandicus. The author entirely mistakes the bird. The Ground Lark (Anthus Novœ Zelandiœ) belongs to a totally different family.

18. The author's conjecture that the “light variety” of Kaka (Nestor) may be Platycercus auriceps, is far wide of the mark, as Nestor is a very different genus to Platycercus, which comprises the various species of parrakeet found in New Zealand. The suggestion that the “Kaka-korako,” or albino, belongs to the genus Trichoglossus is even more unfortunate.

19. The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is described as a bird of “red plumage,”— a very inaccurate and insufficient description of this remarkably fine species.

20. The author is mistaken in giving the Parrakeet (Platycercus pacificus) a “band of red or yellow on the throat.”

21. I have examined very many specimens of Ardea matook, but I have never seen one corresponding with the author's description, which gives this bird a “perfectly bald skull of a red colour.”

22. The White Crane (Ardea flavirostris) has black legs, not “dark green,” as described.

23. Himantopus Novœ Zelandiœ has a black bill, not a “red” one.

Certhia diluta, Shaw.—Gen. Zool., Vol. viii., p. 244.

Philedon cœruleus, Cuvier.

Meliphaga cœrulea, Steph.—Cont. of Shaw's Gen. Zool., Vol. xiv., p. 264.

Sylvia annulosa, var. b.—Sevains. Zool., Ill., 1st. ser., pl. 16.

Zosterops tenuirostris, Gould.—Proc. Z. S., 1837, p. 76.

The story of the irregular appearance of this little bird in New Zealand has for years past been a fruitful topic of discussion among those who take an interest in our local natural history. Whether it came over to us originally from Australia, or whether it is only a species from the extreme south of New Zealand, which has of late years perceptibly increased, and has migrated northwards, is still a matter of conjecture. The evidence which, with Dr. Hector's assistance, I have been able to collect on this subject is somewhat conflicting, but I have myself arrived at the conclusion that the species, whether identical or not with the Australian bird which it closely resembles, is in reality an indigenous one. The history of the species, however, from a North Island point of view is very interesting and suggestive. It appeared on the north side of Cook's Strait, for the first time within the memory of the oldest native inhabitants, in the winter of 1856. In the early part of June of that year I first heard of its occurrence at Waikanae, a native settlement on the west coast, about forty miles from Wellington. The native mailman brought in word that a new bird had been seen, and that it was a visitor from some other land. A week later he brought intelligence that large flocks had appeared, and that the “tau-hou” (stranger) swarmed in the brush-wood near the coast; reporting further that they seemed weary after their journey, and that the natives had caught many of them alive. Simultaneously with this intelligence, I observed a pair of them in a garden hedge, in Wellington, and a fortnight later they appeared in large numbers, frequenting the gardens and shrubberies both in and around the town. They were to be seen daily in considerable flocks, hurrying forwards from tree to tree, and from one garden to another, with a continuous, noisy twitter. In the early morning, a flock of them might be seen clustering together on the topmost twigs of a leafless willow, uttering short plaintive notes, and if disturbed, suddenly rising in the air and wheeling off with a confused and rapid twittering. When the flock had dispersed in the shrubbery, I always observed that two or more birds remained as sentinels or call- birds, stationed on the highest twigs; and that on the slightest alarm, the sharp signal note of these watchers would instantly bring the whole fraternity together. The number of individuals in a flock, at that time, never exceeded forty or fifty, but of late years the number has sensibly increased, it being a common thing now to see a hundred or more consorting together at one time. They appeared to be uneasy during, or immediately preceding, a shower of rain, becoming more noisy and more restless in their movements. They proclaimed

themselves a blessing by preying on and arresting the progress of that noxious aphis known as “American blight” (Schizoneura lanigera).

They remained with us for three months, and then departed as suddenly as they had come. They left before the orchard fruits, of which they are also fond, had ripened, and having proved themselves real benefactors they earned the gratitude of the settlers, while all the local newspapers sounded their well- deserved praises.

During the two years that followed, the Zosterops was never heard of again in any part of the North Island; but in the winter of 1858 it again crossed the strait, and appeared in Wellington and its environs in greater numbers than before. During the four succeeding years it regularly wintered with us, recrossing the strait on the approach of spring. Since the year 1862, when it commenced to breed with us, it has been a permanent resident in the North Island, and from that time it continued to advance northwards. Mr. Colenso, of Napier, reports that it was first seen at Ahuriri in 1862. On his journey to Te Wairoa, in that year, he saw it at Aropauanui, and found its nest containing four fledgelings. The natives of that place told him that it was a new bird to them, they having first observed it there in the preceding year, 1861. The Hon. Major Atkinson, on the occasion of a visit, as Defence Minister, to the native tribes of the Upper Wanganui, in April, 1864, made enquiries on the subject, and was informed by the natives that the Zosterops had appeared in their district for the first time in 1863.

As far as I can ascertain, they penetrated to Waikato in the following year, and pushed their way as far as Auckland in 1865. Captain Hutton reports that in the winter of 1867 they had spread all over the province, as far north as the Bay of Islands, and in 1868 he writes,—“They are now in the most northerly parts of this island.” That they have continued to move on still further northward would appear to be the case from the following interesting notes by Mr. G. B. Owen, communicated to me by Captain Hutton :—” On my passage from Tahiti to Auckland, per brig “Rita,” about 300 miles north of the North Cape of New Zealand, I saw one morning several little birds flying about the ship. From their twittering and manner of flying I concluded that they were land birds, and they were easily caught. They were of a brownish grey and yellowish colour, with a little white mark round the eye. I saw several pass over the ship during the day, travelling northwards. I arrived in Auckland a few days afterwards, on the 20th May, when the so-called Blight Birds appeared here in such numbers, and I at once recognized them as the same.”

This tendency of migration northwards appears to me quite inconsistent with the idea of the species having come to us from Australia.

Now let us ascertain something of its recorded history in the South Island. Mr. Potts, a most careful and experienced observer, writes to me :—

“I first observed it (in Canterbury) after some rough weather, July 28, 1856. I saw about half-a-dozen specimens, on some isolated black birch trees in the Rockwood Valley in the Malvern Hills.” In the Auckland Museum there is a specimen of this bird, sent from Nelson by Mr. St. John (an industrious bird collector), in 1856. The skin was labelled “stranger,” and in the letter accompanying it, Mr. St. John states that these birds had made their first appearance in Nelson that winter (the same in which they crossed to the North Island), and that “no one, not even the natives, had ever seen them before.”

On a visit to Nelson in the winter of 1860, I saw numerous flights of them in the gardens and shrubberies. The results of very careful enquiries on the spot satisfied me that since their first appearance there, in 1856, they had continued to visit Nelson every year, arriving at the commencement of winter, and vanishing on the approach of warmer days as suddenly as they had come. On every hand the settlers bore testimony to their good services in destroying the cabbage blight and other insect pests.

About the middle of June, 1861, I met with small flocks of this bird on the Canterbury Plains, evidently on their passage northward. I first observed them in the low scrub on the broad shingle beds of the Rakaia, advancing in a very hurried manner, not high in the air, as migrations are usually performed, but close to the ground, and occasionally resting. But that this bird is capable of protracted flight is evidenced by the form of its wings, which are of the lengthened, acuminate character, common to most birds of passage.

During a visit to Dunedin, in the summer of 1860, the Rev. Mr. Stack observed numerous flocks in the gardens and thickets in the environs of the town. At this season they had disappeared from the Province of Canterbury and all the country further north. In the following summer (1861), I met with numerous stragglers in the northern parts of the Canterbury Province, and I understand from Mr. Potts, that since that time it has been a permanent resident there, increasing in numbers every year.

Mr. Buchanan, of the Geological Survey Department, informs me that he observed the Zosterops at Otago, on his first arrival there in 1851, five years previous to its appearance in the North Island; and the following extracts from letters, communicated to me by Dr. Hector, go still further to prove that the species is an indigenous one there, and is only new to the country lying further north.

Mr. Newton Watt, R.M., of Campbell Town (Southland), writes as follows:— “Paitu, a chief here, and I believe the oldest man in the tribe, says it was always here. Howell says that he first noticed them on the west coast, about Milford Sound, in the year 1832, in flocks of thirty or forty, but never noticed them here (Riverton) till about 1863, when he saw them inland and in smaller flocks. On my way back from Riverton, I was mentioning it at the Club at Invercargill, and a gentleman present told me he had first noticed

them, about eighty miles inland, about the year 1861, and that his attention was first called to them from the circumstance that they were gregarious,—a habit not common with New Zealand birds. At Campbell Town it appeared to be more scarce, being seen only in small flocks, varying in number from six to twelve. * * * In 1866 my sons noticed numbers of them among my cabbages, and observed that the cats caught many of them; and further, that whilst my cabbages in the three preceding years were infested with blight, in that year there was little or no blight upon them till very late in the season. They appear to migrate from this in the winter, or at any rate to be scarce.”

Mr. James P. Maitland, R.M., of Molyneux, writes:—“From what I hear from old settlers of seventeen or eighteen years standing—whom I can trust as men of observation—I am convinced we have had the birds here for that time at any rate, although all agree that they have become much more numerous everywhere during the last seven years; and this year (1867) in particular, I observe them in larger flocks than ever. I confess I do not recollect noticing the bird until about six years ago; but the smallness of their number at that time, and the smallness of the bird itself, may easily account for its being unnoticed in the bush. The gardens seem to be the great attraction here, and they are the best hands I know at picking a cherry or plum stone clean!”

All my own personal enquiries at Otago, during my first visit there in February, 1865, led me to the same conclusion.

In the selection of its breeding home, this bird has manifested with us the same erratic tendencies: thus, for the first three or four years after its permanent location in the North Island, it wintered in the low lands and the districts bordering on the sea coast, and retired in summer to the higher forest lands of the interior to breed and rear its young. In the summer of 1865, a few stragglers were observed to remain behind all through the season, and in the following year they sojourned in flocks and freely built their nests in our shrub- beries and thickets, and even among the stunted fern and tea-tree (Leptospermum) near the sea shore. From that time to the present it has ranked as one of our commonest birds all the year round; and, what is even more remarkable, it has very perceptibly increased in numbers, while most of our other insectivorous birds are rapidly declining and threaten ere long to be extinct.

To the philosophical naturalist the history of the Zosterops in New Zealand is pregnant with interest, and I feel that no apology is needed for my having thus minutely recorded it.

A specimen which I gave to the Rev. R. Taylor, and forwarded by him to the British Museum, was identified by Dr. J. E. Gray as Zosterops dorsalis. A notice thereof appeared in the Annals of Natural History, and in other scientific papers, and the supposed migration of the species from Australia to New Zealand excited considerable interest. Zosterops dorsalis is found to be identical with Z. lateralis, Latham, and Mr. Gould's Z. cœrulescens is merely a

synonyme of the same species. The last named writer informs us that “this bird is stationary in all parts of Tasmania, New South Wales, and South Australia, where it is not only to be met with in the forests and thickets, but also in nearly every garden.” Dr. Finsch, of Bremen, to whom specimens of the New Zealand bird were forwarded by Dr. Haast, pronounced it Zosterops lateralis, Lath.; while Mr. Waterhouse, of the South Australian Museum, to whom Dr. Hector forwarded examples for examination, considers it distinct from the Australian species “although much resembling it.”

The natives distinguish the bird as Tau-hou (which means “a stranger”), or Kanohi-mowhiti, which may be interpreted spectacle-eye or ring-eye. It is also called Poporohe and Iringatau, names suggested by its accidental or periodical occurrence.

By the settlers it has been variously designated as Ring-eye, Wax-eye, White-eye or Silver-eye, in allusion to the beautiful circlet of satiny-white feathers which surrounds the eyes; and quite as commonly the “Blight Bird,” or “Winter-migrant.”

I have frequently watched the habits of this little bird, and with much interest. As already stated it is gregarious, flying and consorting in flocks, except in the breeding season, when they are to be observed singly or in pairs. As soon as a flock of them alights on a tree, or clump of brush-wood, they immediately disperse in quest of food; and on a cautious approach, may be seen prosecuting a very diligent search among the leaves and flowers, and in the crevices of the bark, for the small insects and aphides on which they principally subsist. I have opened many specimens, at all seasons, and I have invariably found their stomachs crammed with minute insects and their larvæ. In some I have found the large pulpy scale insect (Coccus sp.), of a dull green colour, which is commonly found adhering to the leaves of the ramarama (Myrtus bullata); also small caterpillars, grasshoppers, and coleoptera, and occasionally the small fruity seeds of Rubus australis and other native plants. In our orchards and gardens it regales itself freely on plums, cherries, figs, gooseberries, and other soft fruits, but it far more than compensates for this petty pilfering, by the wholesale war it carries on against the various species of insects that afflict our fruit trees and vegetables. It feeds on that disgusting little aphis known as American Blight, which so rapidly covers with a fatal cloak of white the stems and branches of our best apple trees; it clears our early cabbages of a pestilent little insect that, left unchecked, would utterly destroy the crop; it visits our gardens and devours another swarming parasite that covers our roses and other flowering plants; to say nothing of its general services as an insectivorous bird. Surely in return for these important benefits, to both orchard and garden, the flocks of Zosterops may justly be held entitled to an occasional feed of cherries, or to a small tithe of the ripe fruits which they have done so much to defend and cherish!

This bird emits a soft plaintive cry, repeated at short intervals; but on the wing, and especially when consorting in a flock, it utters a rapid twittering note. During the breeding season the male indulges in a low musical strain of exquisite sweetness, but very subdued, as if singing to himself or performing for the exclusive benefit of his partner. This song is something like the subdued strain of the Korimako (Anthornis melanura), but much softer.

If shot at and wounded it generally manages to escape capture by scrambling nimbly off into the thicket, hiding itself and remaining perfectly silent till the danger has passed.

Frequent attempts have been made to keep it caged, but, although it will readily feed, I have never known it survive confinement many weeks.

Mr. Colenso observes that “when they retire to roost they sleep in pairs, cuddling quite close together like love-parrots; and before they fold their heads under their wings they bill and preen each other's head and neck most lovingly, uttering at the same time a gentle twittering note.”

Mr. Potts informs me that, in Canterbury, this species begins nesting early in October. In one instance, within his own observation, the birds commenced incubation on October 16, the young were hatched on October 25, and left the nest on November 4. In the North Island the breeding season is somewhat later. As late as the 24th of December I met with a nest in the Taupo-Patea country, containing two perfectly fresh eggs.

The nest is a slight, cup-shaped structure, with a rather large cavity for the size of the bird, and is generally found suspended by side fastenings to hanging vines, or to the slender twigs of Leptospermum, Olearia, and other shrubs, and sometimes to the common fern (Pteris aquilina). The eggs are generally three in number (sometimes four), ovoiconical in form, and of a beautiful, uniform pale blue colour.

Nests of this species exhibit some variety, both as to structure and the materials of which they are composed. Of three specimens now before me, one is of slight construction and shallow in its cavity, composed externally of green coloured lichen, spiders' nests, the downy seed-vessels of the pikiarero (flowering clematis) and a few dry leaves; lined internally with long horse- hair disposed in a circular form. Another is of smaller size, more compact, composed externally of crisp, dry moss, and internally of grass bents with a few long hairs interlaced; while the third has the exterior walls constructed entirely of spiders' nests and stiff fibrous mosses, the former predominating, and the interior lining composed wholly of long horse-hair.

A specimen which I found suspended in a clump of creeping kohia (Passiflora tetandra) was composed externally of the pale green and rust- coloured lichen so abundant on the branches of dead timber, intermixed with spiders' webs, and lined inside with dry fibrous grasses, the whole being laced together with hair, the long straggling ends of which projected from every part

1855, from the Wainuiomata Hills, a continuation of the Rimutaka Range, bounding the Wellington Harbour on the northern side,—the same locality from which Dr. Dieffenbach, nearly twenty years before, received the examples figured by Mr. Gould in his magnificent work on the Birds of Australia. I have since obtained many fine specimens, and in the summer of 1864, I succeeded in getting a pair of live ones. They were caught by a native in the ranges, and brought down to Manawatu, a distance of more than fifty miles, on horseback. The owner refused to take money for them, but I negotiated an exchange for a valuable greenstone. I kept these birds for more than a year, waiting a favourable opportunity of forwarding them to the Zoological Society of London. Through the carelessness, however, of a servant, the male bird was accidentally killed, and the other manifesting the utmost distress, pined for her mate and died ten days afterwards.

The readiness with which these birds adapted themselves to a condition of captivity was very remarkable. Within a few days after their capture they had become perfectly tame, and did not appear to feel in any degree the restraint of confinement, for, although the window of the apartment in which they were kept was thrown open and replaced by thin wire netting, I never saw them make any attempt to regain their liberty. It is well known, however, that birds of different species differ widely in natural disposition and temper. The captive eagle frets in his sulky pride, the bittern refuses food and dies untamable, the fluttering little humming bird beats itself to death against the tiny bars of its prison in its futile efforts to escape, and many species that appear to submit readily to their changed condition of life, ultimately pine, sicken, and die. There are other species again which cheerfully adapt themselves to their new life, although caged at maturity, and seem to thrive fully as well under confinement as in a state of nature. Parrots, for example, are easily tamed, and I have met with numerous instances of their voluntary return after having regained their liberty. This tamability of character was exemplified to perfection in the Huias.

They were fully adult birds, and were caught in the following simple manner. Attracting the birds by an imitation of their cry to the place where he lay concealed, the native, with the aid of a long rod, slipped a running knot over the head of the female and secured her. The male, emboldened by the loss of his mate, suffered himself to be easily caught in the same manner. On receiving these birds I set them free in a well-lined and properly ventilated room, measuring about six feet by eight feet. They appeared to be stiff after their severe jolt on horseback, and after feeding freely on the huhu grub, a pot of which the native had brought with them, they retired to one of the perches I had set up for them, and cuddled together for the night.

In the morning I found them somewhat recruited, feeding with avidity, sipping water from a dish, and flitting about in a very active manner. It was

amusing to note their treatment of the huhu. This grub, the larva of a large nocturnal beetle (Prionoplus reticularis), which constitutes their principal food, infests all decayed timber, attaining at maturity the size of a man's little finger. Like all grubs of its kind, it is furnished with a hard head and horny mandibles. On offering one of these to the Huia, he would seize it in the middle and, at once transferring it to his perch and placing one foot firmly upon it, he would tear off the hard parts, then throwing the grub upwards to secure it lengthwise in his bill, would swallow it whole. For the first few days these birds were comparatively quiet, remaining stationary on their perch as soon as their hunger was appeased. But they afterwards became more lively and active, indulging in play with each other and seldom remaining more than a few moments in one position. I sent to the woods for a small branched tree, and placed it in the centre of the room, the floor of which was spread with sand and gravel. It was most interesting to watch these graceful birds hopping from branch to branch, occasionally spreading the tail into a broad fan, displaying themselves in a variety of natural attitudes and then meeting to caress each other with their ivory bills, uttering at the same time a low affectionate twitter. They generally moved along the branches by a succession of light hops after the manner of the kokako (Callœas cinerea), and they often descended to the floor where their mode of progression was the same. They seemed never to tire of probing and chiselling with their beaks. Having discovered that the canvas lining of the room was pervious, they were incessantly piercing it, and tearing off large strips of paper till, in the course of a few days, the walls were completely defaced.

But what interested me most of all was the manner in which the birds assisted each other in their search for food, because it appeared to explain the use, in the economy of nature, of the differently formed bills in the two sexes. To divert the birds I introduced a log of decayed wood infested with the huhu grub. They at once attacked it, carefully probing the softer parts with their bills, and then vigorously assailing them, scooping out the decayed wood till the larva or pupa was visible, when it was carefully drawn from its cell, treated in the way described above, and then swallowed. The very different development of the mandibles in the two sexes enabled them to perform separate offices. The male always attacked the more decayed portions of the wood, chiselling out his prey after the manner of some wood- peckers, while the female probed with her long plient bill the other cells, where the hardness of the surrounding parts resisted the chisel of her mate. Sometimes I observed the male remove the decayed portion without being able to reach the grub, when the female would at once come to his aid, and accomplish with her long slender bill what he had failed to do. I noticed, however that the female always appropriated to her own use the morsels thus obtained.

For some days they refused to eat anything but huhu, but by degrees they

yielded to a change of food, and at length would eat cooked potato and raw meat minced up in small pieces. They were kept supplied with a dish of fresh water, but seldom washed themselves although often repairing to the vessel to drink. Their ordinary call was a soft and clear whistle, at first prolonged, then short and quickly repeated, both birds joining in it. When excited or hungry they raised their whistling note to a high pitch; at other times it was softly modulated, with variations, or changed into a low chuckling note. Sometimes their cry resembled the whining of young puppies so exactly as almost to defy detection.

Dr. Dieffenbach, in forwarding his specimens of the Huia to Mr. Gould, in 1836, wrote,—“These fine birds can only be obtained with the help of a native, who calls them with a shrill and long continued whistle resembling the sound of the native name of the species. After an extensive journey in the hilly forest in search of them, I had at last the pleasure of seeing four alight on the lower branches of the trees near which the native accompanying me stood. They came quick as lightning, descending from branch to branch, spreading out the tail and throwing up the wings.” I have had only a single opportunity of observing this species in its native haunts, and I was struck by the same peculiarities in its manners and general demeanour. In the summer of 1867, accompanied by a friend and two natives, I made an expedition into the Ruahine Ranges in search of novelties. After a tramp on foot of nearly twenty miles, through a densely wooded country, we were rewarded by finding the Huia. We were climbing the side of a steep acclivity, and had halted to dig specimens of the curious vegetating caterpillar (Sphœria Robertsii), which was abundant there. While thus engaged, we heard the soft flute note of the Huia in the wooded gully far beneath us. One of our native companions at once imitated the call, and in a few seconds a pair of beautiful Huias, male and female, appeared in the branches near us. They remained gazing at us only a few instants, and then started off up the side of the hill, moving by a succession of hops, often along the ground, the male generally leading. Waiting till he could get both birds in a line, my friend at length pulled trigger, but the cap snapped and the Huias instantly disappeared down the wooded ravine. Then followed a chevy of some three miles, down the mountain side and up its rugged ravines. Once more, owing to the dampness of the weather, the cap snapped and the birds were finally lost sight of. I observed that their mode of progression was similar to that of the kokako, but far more rapid. While in motion they kept near each other and uttered constantly a soft twitter. The tail was often partially spread, while the bright orange lappets were usually compressed under the rami of the lower jaw.

We camped that night near the bed of a mountain rivulet, in a deep wooded ravine, and soon after dawn we again heard the rich notes of a Huia.

Failing to allure him by an imitation of the call, although he frequently answered it, we crossed to the other side of the gully, and climbed the hill to a clump of tall rimu trees (Dacrydium cupressinum), where we found him. He was perched on the high limb of a rimu, chiselling it with his powerful beak, and tearing off large pieces of bark, doubtless in search of insects, and it was the falling of these fragments that guided us to the spot, and enabled us to find him. This solitary bird, which proved to be an old male, had frequented this neighbourhood, as we were informed by the natives, for several years, his notes being familiar to the people who passed to and fro along the Otairi track, leading to Taupo. On asking a native how the Huia contrived to extract the huhu from the decayed timber, he replied, “by digging with his pick-axe”— an expression which I found to be truthfully descriptive of the operation; and on dissecting this specimen I found an extraordinary development of the requisite muscles. The skin was very tough, indicating probably extreme age. The stomach contained numerous remains of coleopterous insects, of the kind usually found under the bark of trees, also one or two caterpillars. In the stomach of another, I once discovered seeds of the hinau (Elœocarpus dentatus) and the remains of a small earth grub. Dr. Dieffenbach states that in the stomachs of his specimens he found hinau berries, together with dipterous and coleopterous insects.

Of the nidification of the Huia nothing is at present known. I have been assured, however, by a native, that he once found the nest of this bird in the cavity of a tree, that it contained two young birds, a male and a female, and that they differed from the adults in having the wattles flesh-white instead of orange.

Mr. Gould, who was the first to characterize the genus (Proc. Zool. Soc., Part iv., p. 144), was deceived by the great difference in the form of the bill, and treated the sexes as distinct species, naming them respectively Neomorpha crassirostris and N. acutirostris,—a very natural mistake, “many genera even,” as Mr. Gould observes, “having been founded upon more trivial differences of character.” Mr. G. R. Gray having determined their identity, proposed to substitute the specific name of Neomorpha Gouldi, in compliment to the original describer. The generic term has since been changed to Heteralocha, and the Huia continues to be the sole representative of this anomalous genus.

The head of the female as figured in Nature (confessedly only a copy), is quite out of all natural proportion to that of the male, and is apt to give a false idea of its relative size and thickness.

In the generality of specimens, and in the published drawings that have hitherto appeared, the bill is of a yellowish horn colour, but this instead of being natural is caused by the decomposition of the animal matter inside. I have succeeded in retaining the ivory whiteness of the bill, in preserved specimens, by treating them after the manner recommended by Waterton for

two words, kakati, to sting, and po, the night,) and although more strictly applicable to the venomous spider, is often used to denote a wasp or other stinging insect.

The exact range of this spider—interesting as being the only poisonous vermin in New Zealand—cannot yet be accurately determined; but it appears to be rather local in its distribution, while its habitat is strictly confined to the sand-hills skirting the sea shore. Along the coast from Wainui to Waikanae (on the north side of Cook's Strait), it is excessively abundant. From Waikanae to Horowhenua it is comparatively scarce; but at the latter place, and for a few miles further north, it is said to be abundant. At Manawatu, and thence along the coast for twenty or thirty miles, it is very rare. At the mouth of the Wanganui River, again, it is very abundant, and a story is still current among the natives of the district about a fishing party, all of whom were bitten by this dreaded spider, and, in two cases, with fatal results. I was assured by Matene Te Whiwhi, of Otaki, that in former times a war party to which he belonged, on camping for the night near the mouth of the Wanganui River, had no less than ten men bitten before morning, some of whom suffered very severely. The Rev. Mr. Stannard informs me that he found the Katipo very plentiful, a few years ago, on the sea coast between Waitotara and Patea On some parts of the Taranaki coast it is known to be very abundant. It is plentiful near the mouth of the Mokau River, but becomes scarcer as we go further north. It occurs, more or less abundantly, on the shores of the Bay of Plenty, but never beyond the littoral zone of sand dunes. It is also found, but less numerously, on the east coast of the Wellington Province. Major Heaphy obtained a specimen at Massacre Bay, near Nelson, in the South Island.

The notices of the Katipo which have hitherto been published contain many inaccuracies of description. In a very interesting paper communicated to the Auckland Institute, by Dr. Wright (Transactions, 1869, p. 81), the sea-shore Katipo is described as having a “dark glossy body with a marked red spot on the back.” The Rev. R. Taylor, in his Leaf of the Natural History of New Zealand, writes thus:—“The Katip—venomous spider—one kind red, and one black with a red spot upon its back.” Major Heaphy expresses his doubts as to the existence of a red Katipo, as described by Mr. Taylor. (Transactions, 1869, p. 83.) Dr. Thompson, in his Story of New Zealand, says that there are two poisonous spiders—“the one found in the dry sea sand, having a bright red spot on its dark back, the other, found inland, being of a yellow colour.” (p. 30.) According to another account, the inland Katipo has “a round black and shining body but without the spot.” In his recent work, New Zealand and its Inhabitants, Mr. Taylor describes the Katipo as “a black spider very delicately formed, with a red cross on its back, surrounded with white spots; the female being entirely black.” Dr. Hochstetter, who had

never actually seen the Katipo, describes it more correctly as “a small black spider with a red stripe on its back.” Dr. Ralph, in the paper already referred to, mentions that this spider presents a very different appearance at different periods of its age, but he does not attempt to describe these progressive changes towards maturity. Having recently, through the kind assistance of Mr. Knocks, of Otaki, obtained a fine collection of live Katipos, in every stage of growth, together with their cocoons or nests, I am enabled to place before the Society a more detailed description of the species than has ever yet appeared.

There is a small extent of sand-hills near Waikanae, on the west coast, noted among the natives for the abundance of Katipo. A settler residing there, named Jenkins, assured me that he could without difficulty “fill a quart measure in less than a day.” In 1857, I collected in that locality a considerable number of them, and kept them alive for several weeks in order to study their habits. And I may here mention a circumstance illustrative of the wonderful tenacity of life possessed by some of the Arachnida. I shut up a full-grown Katipo in a chemist's chip-box, on the 11th May, and placing it among other objects in my cabinet, it was overlooked and forgotten. I consequently did not open the chip-box again until the 8th October following, when I found the spider alive and active, and apparently none the worse for five months' fasting! As, however, in other instances I have known them perish at the end of a week for want of food, I am inclined to consider the above case corroborative of the Native account, that on the approach of cold weather the Katipo retires to a cell underground, and passes the winter in a torpid state, and that in this condition it may be handled with perfect impunity.

Mr. Taylor, in the published account already noticed, states that “the Katipo does not make any web,” but this is a mistake, for on examining its haunts, it will often be found occupying a thick domed web, and on being captured, it may be observed spinning a fine thread of gossamer. This venomous spider may sometimes be found on the leaves of the pouaka, and occasionally in the crevices of drift timber lying high and dry on the sea beach; but its favourite resort is under the tufts of pingao (Desmoschœnus spiralis), which grows in abundance on the sand dunes near the coast. On moving aside the long, overlapping leaves, the white web of the spider may be seen attached to the roots of the plant, and within or around it two or more of the venomous Katipo, the bright stripe on the back contrasting strongly with the black of the other parts.

The Rev. Mr. Chapman records a case in which the bite of this spider proved fatal to a girl who was bitten in the region of the abdomen; and he mentions another case, of an English lad who was bitten on the fleshy part of the thigh, and “was three months before he rallied, and probably another three before he fully recovered.” (See Transactions, 1869, p. 82.) The natives on the west coast have assured me that among them, children have frequently

died from the effects of the bite. But in the generality of cases, and especially if the usual remedies are applied, the poisonous effects of the bite pass away in a few days, causing however much pain and lassitude while they last. The natives have several modes of treating a subject recently bitten, the most effectual one being to scarify the part and to bathe the patient in hot water. Another remedy in repute among them is to anoint the part affected with kokowai, or red ochre. This has the effect of reducing the swelling which almost immediately follows the bite, and alleviating the pain; and if the subject be robust and healthy no further inconvenience is likely to ensue. But if no such remedial measures are adopted, and the bite is neglected, very serious consequences may follow. According to the natives, the common symptoms are an aching pain in the part bitten, which soon becomes much swollen and inflamed; then a copious sweat, and a feeling of intense languor and depression of spirits. If not checked, this is followed by a convulsive contraction of the limbs, and the case then assumes a dangerous phase.

During my residence at Manawatu, some years ago, the natives brought me word that a woman had been bitten by a Katipo. I at once placed the case in the hands of the Native Medical Officer of the district, Batten Smith, Esq., to whom I am indebted for the following interesting notes:—

“April 5, 1863. At 2 p.m. I was called to see a woman named Marara, about fifty years of age, and belonging to the Ngatiwhakatere tribe. It appears that yesterday, about noon, whilst digging potatoes at Wirokino (near the sea coast) she was bitten by a Katipo on the left hip. In a few minutes after, she complained of ‘pains all over her,’ which were followed in the space of two hours by cold shiverings, lasting only for a few minutes and returning at irregular intervals up to the time of my visit. He husband had applied hot roasted potato to the seat of pain, though without alleviating it. She has always been a strong and healthy woman. I found the left hip slightly swollen and tender on pressure, but neither any noticeable shining blush nor heat of the skin; the tongue clean all over; pulse through, full and strong, reaching only to 75; neither vomiting nor headache, cramps in the muscles of the stomach nor sore throat. Countenance anxious, but not bloated; pupils of the eyes natural, and not over sensitive to light. Pain great in both thighs, but greatest at the immediate seat of the bite, which had the same appearance as the prick of a needle or other fine instrument would produce. No swelling of either legs or feet.

“Treatment:—Solution of nitrate of silver 10 grains to 1 ounce of water, washed over the hip; and she was given the following mixture,—Carbonate of ammonia 2 scruples, laudanum 40 drops, chloric æther ½ drachm, peppermint water to 8 ounces. Two table spoonfuls to be taken every second hour.

“At 9 p.m. the rigors and pain having abated, she was given,—Hyd. Chlor. 3 grains, s. s., and Hst. Alb. 1 ounce, s. m.

“April 6. Better, but tongue rather yellow. Repeated mixture with an increase of ammonia.

“April 7. Every bad symptom abated.

“April 8. Discharged well.”

Dr. Wright, in describing a case within his own practice at Auckland, states that the patient, who was a stout strong man, within an hour after being bitten by a Katipo, on attempting to eat, found that he could not open his mouth, or was scarcely able to articulate in consequence of stiffness about the jaws. The symptoms grew rapidly worse, and the patient became faint and almost pulseless. His extremities were cold and flaccid, his respiration almost ceased, and his two medical attendants had fears that he was about to expire. Spirits of ammonia were applied to the wound, which had the effect of reducing the swelling and abating the pain; ammonia and water, afterwards combined with brandy, were administered in considerable doses. Under this treatment the patient gradually improved, and in two hours was able to return home, but for several days after was unable to return to his work. Dr. Wright concludes that “from the symptoms of this case, the man was powerfully affected by a narcotic and irritating poison, which being absorbed into the circulation, affected the heart, brain, and nervous system to a very considerable extent, almost amounting to fatal syncope,—that the stimulants, by exciting the heart's action, gradually aroused the excretory functions so as ultimately to remove the poison from the system.”

Enough has been said to show that the bite of the Katipo, although seldom fatal, is very painful and distressing. It is important, therefore, that those whose avocations lead them to the sea shore, should be able to distinguish it readily from other spiders, and to know its haunts, so as to avoid them. I have satisfied myself that in common with many other venomous creatures, it only exerts its dreaded power as a means of defence, or when greatly irritated; for I have observed that on being touched with the finger, it instantly folds its legs, rolls over on its back, and simulates death, remaining perfectly motionless till further molested, when it attempts to escape, only using its fangs as the dernier ressort.

The cocoon, or nest of the Katipo, is perfectly spherical in shape, opaque, yellowish white, and composed of a silky web of very fine texture. The eggs are of the size of mustard seed, perfectly round, and of a transparent purplish red. They are agglutinated together in the form of a ball, and are placed in the centre of the cocoon, the exterior surface of which is sometimes encrusted with sand.

The Katipo undergoes the following changes in its progress towards maturity. In the very young state, it has the body white with two linear series of connected black spots, and an intermediate line of pale red; under parts brown; legs light brown with black joints. In the next stage, the fore

1. Deinacrida heteracantha, White. (“Weta-punga” of the natives.)

This fine species has a very limited geographical range. I have never heard of its occurrence south of the Waikato District, in the North Island. Formerly it was abundant in the forests north of Auckland; but of late years it has become extremely rare. The natives attribute its extermination to the introduced Norway rat, which now infests every part of the country and devours almost everything that comes in its way. One of these insects, in the collection of the late Dr. Sinclair, measured, with its hind legs and antennæ stretched out, fourteen inches; its head and body, exclusive of appendages, being two inches and a half. A specimen which I obtained in a pine forest, near the Kaipara River, more than thirteen years ago, and which is now deposited in the Auckland Museum, is even larger. The sexes differ considerably in size.

The Weta-punga appears to subsist chiefly on the green leaves of trees and shrubs. It climbs with agility, and is sometimes found on the topmost branches of the kabikatea and other lofty trees, but more generally on the low under- wood of the forest. When disturbed it produces a clicking noise, accompanied by a slow alternate movement of its powerful hind legs. When taken it kicks or strikes backwards with these limbs, which are armed with double rows of sharp spurs; and, unless dexterously seized, will not fail to punish the offender's hand, the prick of its spurs causing an unpleasant stinging sensation. My brother-in-law, Major Mair, obtained some exceedingly fine examples of this insect in the Whangarei District. He found the killing of them, so as not to injure the specimens, a matter of some difficulty; and in one instance attempted to drown the insect in cold water, but found it after four days' immersion as lively and active as ever. In another case, a large Weta-punga which he had immersed in water almost boiling, and then laid aside in his insect-box as killed, revived in the course of a few hours, and appeared to be quite unharmed! A pair which I captured in a low belt of wood near the Wairoa, and secured in a pocket handkerchief, had eaten their way out and escaped before my return to the spot where I had left them carefully suspended.

2. Deinacrida thoracica, Gray. “Weta” of the natives.)

This species is very common in the North Island. It infests decayed wood, and particularly the dry stems of the tutu (Coriaria ruscifolia) and the branches of Griselina lucida, into which it bores. During the night it may be heard emitting a peculiar snapping sound, especially when disturbed by the blaze of a camp fire in the woods.

The male may be readily distinguished from the female by its large head and long powerful jaws. The ovipositor (in the female) is about half an inch

long, and is slightly recurved. This insect is preyed on by the koheperoa (Eudynamis taïtensis), the kaka (Nestor meridionalis) and several other birds.

3. Deinacrida megacephala, Buller. (Zool., 1867, p. 852.)

I bestowed this name on a new species, of which I had received several examples (of both sexes) from the woods in the neighbourhood of Wellington. The male of this species is characterized by a head and mandibles so large as to appear out of all proportion to the size of the body. (Figure 2, Plate V.b.) This exaggerated feature is wanting in the other sex, which, however, is distinguishable from Deinacrida thoracica by sufficiently obvious specific characters. The tibiæ are considerably thicker, and more strongly armed with lateral spurs, although not longer than in the other species; the thorax, which is ochreous- yellow marked with black in D. thoracica, is of uniform dark umber, narrowly margined with brown; the head of this species is almost entirely black, and the body, instead of being pale brown, as in the other, is deep reddish brown with transverse bands of black. The femora are marked on each side with three series of minute black spots, which are more conspicuous in the male. The following are the measurements of the male:—Head and mandibles, one inch; from anterior edge of thorax to end of abdomen one inch and three-sixteenths, the plate of the thorax measuring a quarter of an inch. The antenné are four inches long; femur three-quarters of an inch; tibia one inch and three-sixteenths; tarsus and claws three-eighths of an inch. The vertex is much rounded or elevated, and perfectly smooth.

4. Deinacrida rugosa, sp. nov. (Figs. 1 and 3, Plate V.b.)

I propose this name for a species of which one example only (now deposited in the Colonial Museum) has yet been obtained.

This species is intermediate in size between D. heteracantha and D. megacephala, and possesses very distinct characters. The extreme length of the body is 1¾ inches, the thoracic shield measuring half an inch in length by three-quarters in width (following the curvature). Although a male specimen, the head is very small and rounded, measuring only half an inch in length, by three-eighths in width. The eyes are large and very prominent; the antennæ comparatively short, measuring scarcely four inches. Femur one inch; tibia one inch; tarsus and claws, half an inch. The edges of the thoracic shield are raised, and the surface is deeply punctured and indented. The posterior edges of the dorsal plates are raised, and the lower ones have a fringe of hard papillæ along their outer margin. All the plates are more or less punctured, and the whole surface presents a roughened appearance, which at once distinguishes the species from D. heteracantha, to which it more nearly approaches. Head, thorax, and body bright reddish brown, the edges of the plates darker;

greatest collections, it is in some cases easy to become convinced that a so-called new species has been published long ago elsewhere without having actually seen the type specimen. This has occurred to me often, not only with new species of others but with those published by myself.” And, with the candor of a true man of science, he adds,—“I am always glad and thankful to learn whether one of my species is really good or not, and I was pleased to learn from Mr. Blanford, that a lark which I had described as new had no specific value.”

The following notes have reference not only to the species treated of in my former paper, but relate also to Dr. Finsch's recently published account of the Parrots of New Zealand, as translated for the New Zealand Institute by Mr. R. L. Holmes.

1. Heteralocha Gouldi, Gray.

Dr. Finsch places this species in the family Meliphagidœ (Journ. für Orn., 1870, p. 247), but states no reason for so novel a classification. Till its affinities are better known it must remain where Mr. Gould originally placed it, among the Upupidœ. All that is at present known of this remarkable species will be found collected in a paper read before the Wellington Philosophical Society. (Vide ante, p. 24.)

2. Anthornis adriocula, Buller.

Dr. Finsch, while admitting that this bird is distinct from Anthornis melanura, writes,—“Had you given formerly the measurements of A. auriocula I never would have doubted this species, but now I must say I cannot see the exact difference between this bird and A. melanocephala, Gray;” and in his recent paper on the Birds of New Zealand (Journ. für Orn., 1870, p. 250), he remarks that it coincides so fully with the latter as to warrant a supposition that they are identical, “which appears more probable as both inhabit the Chatham Islands, a small group that can hardly be supposed to possess two species of such close resemblance.”

I find no difficulty in pointing out characters that distinguish my bird from A. melanocephala, even more decidedly than from A. melanura.

Anthornis melanocephala, according to Gray's description, has the head steel black, and the neck, breast and upper tail coverts tinged with the same colour, and the wing coverts steel black margined with yellowish olive. In my Anthornis auriocula all these parts are of a uniform yellowish olive, there being merely a tinge of blue on the forehead as in the common species, A. melanura. In the former species the larger coverts, quills and tail feathers are blackish brown margined with paler or yellowish olive, whereas in my bird they are dusky brown.

3. Anthornis ruficeps, Von Pelzeln.

Regarding this species, Dr. Finsch says,—“You are quite right in respect to A. ruficeps. The red colour on the face is caused by external influences, for my friend, Von Pelzeln, has washed the type in the Vienna Museum, and the red tinge has partially disappeared. But, looking at the specimen, I was bound to take it as a good species, not knowing the singular manner of feeding.”

While this appears to be a full confirmation of my view that the stains were caused by the flowers of Senecio cassinioides, or some other plant, I consider it only fair to my friend, Dr. Haast, who first discovered the supposed species, to give the following extract from one of his letters to me:—“Concerning A. ruficeps I may state, I am more than ever convinced that it is a good species, having an orange forehead and being smaller and thinner than A. melanura. I have been lately to Mount Cook, where the Senecio cassinioides is growing and in blossom, but all the birds had blue heads notwithstanding.”

The only inference, however, as it appears to me, fairly deducible from this fact, is that the red stains are produced not by Senecio casinioides, but by the flowers of some other plant, and this in no degree establishes the validity of the species.

Dr. Finsch quotes a similar communication from Dr. Haast, dated March 26, 1870, but adds, “as this peculiarity of colouring, although only partly removed (in Von Pelzeln's specimen), proved an artificial one, it may be inferred with considerable certainty that its existence was owing to accidental outward influences; anyhow, the pollen with which these birds come in contact while seeking their food, contains colouring qualities producing a durable effect. Anthornis ruficeps ought therefore to be struck out of the list of New Zealand birds although Dr. Haast notes it as a genuine species of sub-alpine regions.” (Journ. für Orn., 1870, p. 250.)

4. Anthornis melanura, Sparrm.

As an instance of the mistakes into which the best closet naturalists almost inevitably fall when treating of a remote fauna, I may point out that Dr. Finsch enumerates Anthornis melanura, one of the commonest New Zealand birds, among the species belonging exclusively to the Chatham Islands. (See Journ. für Orn., 1870, p. 243.)

5. Xekicus Haastii, Buller.

This species is acknowledged by Dr. Finsch to be a good one, but he suggests that it ought to be referred to the genus Certhiparus; a view which I feel bound to reject. It possesses characters, however, which may entitle it to become the type of a new genus. Xenicus gilviventris, Pelz., is now added by Dr. Finsch to the list of species, although omitted in his former paper.

6. Orthonyx ochrocephala, Finsch.

In my former notes (Trans. N. Z. Inst., 1868, p. 108), I objected to the separation of Mohoua ochrocephala and Certhiparus albicillus, as in Dr. Finsch's list, and referred both species to the former genus.

The practice of adopting local native names to designate new genera, appears to me objectionable, inasmuch as it causes confusion in the general nomenclature. The name “Moho” has been selected for a genus of honey- eating birds inhabiting the Sandwich Islands. In New Zealand this name is applied generally by the Maoris to various species of aquatic rails, belonging to no less than three distinct genera. On the other hand, the appellation of “Mohoua” given by M. Lesson as the native name, and selected by him to distinguish the genus, has no existence in the Maori language, and its continued adoption would only perpetuate what is obviously a blunder. I therefore propose to restore the genus Orthonyx of Temminck, to which I can discover no tangible objection. And as I cannot see any valid reason why two species so closely allied both in structure and in habits should be separated generically, I have decided to refer both Mohoua, ochrocephala, Gray, and Certhiparus albicillus, Lesson, to this genus.^*

7. Sphenœacus fulvus, Gray.

As the common species Sphenœacus punctatus is liable to some variation, both in size and plumage, I feel rather doubtful about the specific value of the bird described by Mr. G. R. Gray under the above name. A specimen in Dr. Hector's collection, at Otago, which I had an opportunity of examining in 1865, and which I supposed to be referable to Gray's S. fulvus, measured in length to end of tail 7½ inches; wing from flexure 2½ tail 4; tarsi ¾. The plumage generally was lighter and more fulvous than in ordinary specimens; the tail feathers dark brown edged with paler; bill, tarsi and toes very pale brown. Another specimen (minus the tail), in Mr. Lea's collection, was very similar although somewhat darker.

Whatever importance I might be inclined to attach even to trivial characters when constant, I should hesitate to accord to these occasional examples the rank of a distinct species.

8. Gerygone assimilis, Buller.

In my former notes in reply to Dr. Finsch's paper in the Ibis, the following statement occurs:—“I am not aware that I ever met with Gerygone assimilis in the South Island. At any rate, I demur to being held responsible for wrongly named specimens which I have never had an opportunity of identifying.” Dr. Haast has since written, reminding me that in a collection of skins from Canterbury, forwarded to me for examination in 1866, there was one which I identified as the young of Gerygone assimilis. I take this opportunity, therefore, of correcting a statement which implied that Dr. Haast was wrong in ascribing to this species a South Island range. At the same time it appears to me highly probable that Dr. Haast mistook the two birds. The specimen sent to me (which is still in my possession) is unquestionably a young bird, and although it is often difficult to distinguish between the young of closely allied species, I am still of opinion that it is referable to G. assimilis. The specimen which Dr. Haast forwarded to Germany, was “represented to be a female from Banks' Peninsula.” Dr. Finsch, in noticing this specimen, states that it agrees in every respect with the description and figure of the true G. flaviventris, as given by Gray, except that the “yellowish growth on the under parts and tail coverts is weaker.” (Journ. für Orn., 1870, p. 254.) I perfectly agree with Dr. Finsch that such a bird is not separable from the old species; but the form which I propose to distinguish as G. assimilis is larger, and entirely free from the yellowish tinge on the under parts; and by Dr. Finsch's own showing he has never seen it.

Having examined a large number of their nests in various parts of the country, I found that, while they invariably exhibited the pensile character, they were as a rule referable to one or the other of two distinct types—the bottle-shaped nest with the porch or vestibule, and the pear-shaped form without the porch. This peculiarity coupled with the significant fact that in some instances the eggs were pure white, in others speckled or spotted with red, led me first to suspect the existence of two distinct but closely allied species, and the ascertained difference in size and colour which I have already indicated strengthened that view. In my Essay on New Zealand Ornithology, 1865 (p. 9), I described the two forms of nests, and proposed to distinguish the builder of the larger pear-shaped nest as G. assimilis. Although still of opinion that such a distinction is warranted, I am free to admit that the subject requires further investigation. My esteemed friend, Captain Hutton writes me:—“I have lately seen several good examples of the porch in the Riroriro's nest, but I think it easy to collect a series from no porch to the most developed, and it seems to me to be due more to accidental circumstances than to specific difference.” It will be observed, however, that my correspondent does not appear to have actually found such a series, while in a former letter he states that although he had

examined a great many specimens, he had never yet met with the porch-like contrivance, and in an article recently contributed to the Ibis (July, 1870, p. 393), he remarks,—“I have never seen the porch described by Mr. Buller in his Essay.”

Mr. Potts, in his interesting paper on the nests and eggs of New Zealand birds (Trans. N. Z. Inst., 1869, p. 50), states that this species usually lays six eggs; but, so far as my experience goes, four is the normal number, although there are sometimes more. They differ somewhat in size, and vary in shape from the true ovoiconical to a slightly pyriform type. They are sometimes pure white, but more generally freckled with pale red, and are so fragile in texture as to bear only the most delicate handling. Mr. Potts accounts for the occurrence of white eggs on the supposition that they are the product of young birds; but I am more disposed to consider this, taken in connection with the slight difference in form and size, as further indicative of the existence of two distinct species.

Among the substances used as building materials by this bird, spiders' nests are always conspicuous; indeed, in some specimens the whole exterior surface is covered with them. The particular web chosen for this purpose is an adhesive cocoon of loose texture and of a dull green colour. These spiders' nests contain a cluster of flesh-coloured eggs, or young, and in tearing them off the bird necessarily exposes the contents, which it eagerly devours. Thus, while engaged in collecting the requisite building material, it finds also a plentiful supply of food—an economy of time and labour very necessary to a bird that requires to build a nest fully ten times its own size, and to rear a foster-brood of hungry cuckoos in addition to its own.

9. Petroica Dieffenbachii, Gray.

In characterizing the above species (Voy. Ereb. and Terr., Birds, p. 6), Mr. Gray states that it is “very like Petroica macrocephala, but is altogether smaller in size, and with the small and narrow bill of P. toitoi.”

Petroica toitoi is confined in its range to the North Island, where it is very common. It may readily be distinguished from the other species by the pure whiteness of its under parts. The South Island is the habitat of P. macrocephala, and Auckland Island is included in its range on the authority of Mr. G. R. Gray. I obtained specimens at the Chatham Islands during a visit there in 1855, but I have failed to detect any such difference in examples from that locality as would justify the recognition of a distinct species, as proposed by Mr. Gray. I think it will be found necessary to expunge Petroica Dieffenbachii from the list of species, for I do not believe that it has any real existence.

10. Callæas olivascens, Pelzeln.

I cannot admit Herr von Pelzeln's bird described under the above name (Trans. Zool. Bot. Soc., 1867, p. 317), to be a good species. The description is founded on a specimen collected at Auckland by Mr. Zelebor, and the diagnostic characters which distinguish it from C. cinerea, are the brownish olive colour of the back, wings and tail, the greyish olive of the under parts, its greater size, and the “dusky colour of the mouth caruncles.” The dusky black colour of the wattles is worthless as a distinguishing feature, for these fleshy appendages, which are of a brilliant blue in the living bird, fade in death and entirely change colour in the dried specimen, becoming almost black. The sexes vary in size, and the peculiarity of coloration to which Von Pelzeln attaches specific value is characteristic of the female.

11. Platycercus Novæ Zelandiæ, Sparrm.

Our worthy President, the Hon. Mr. Mantell, in his Anniversary Address, refers to “the lamentable confusion inseparable from the attempt to determine species from the dried and distorted specimens in antipodean museums.”

A striking instance of this is afforded in the number of “species” which stuffed examples of our common little Parrakeet (Platycercus Novœ Zelandiœ) have been made to represent.

The type of Mr. Gray's Platycercus Cooki, in the British Museum, is described as not distinguishable from ordinary specimens of Platycercus Novœ Zelandiœ, except that the red ear spots are rather faint, while the beak is a little stronger and blacker towards the point. Dr. Finsch states “that this distinction in the colour of the beak was taken by Gray as the chief ground for separating the species,” and adds, that in another example of the so-called Pl. Cooki, in the Heine Museum, “the beak exhibits the usual colour.”

An unusually small example of this bird was characterized by Prince C. L. Bonaparte as Pl. Aucklandicus. Another example, presenting some slight differences in the details of its colouring, was described by Verreaux as Pl. Saisetti; and another, of a lighter green plumage than ordinary specimens, became Pl. erythrotis.

Platycercus Rayneri, Gray, founded on a single specimen in the British Museum, does not differ at all in colour from the typical species, the only distinction being the “wider tail feathers.”

Dr. Finsch, after enumerating a large series of specimens that had come under his inspection, very properly concludes:—“It appears to me impossible to make more than one well-defined species out of all the above.” But at the same time, Dr. Finsch (with some apparent reluctance) raises Forster's bird to the rank of a distinct species, Pl. Forsteri, simply because of the accidental absence of the red thigh-spots. He observes, “Gray unites, improperly, this

bird with his Pl. Aucklandicus, although it is quite a distinct species.” On the contrary, I think there is little room to doubt that both of the so-called species ought to be united to Pl. Novœ Zelandiœ.

Dr. Finsch's supposition that Platycercus unicolor, Vigors, in which the frontal spot is wanting, may be the young state of Pl. Novœ Zelandiœ is certainly incorrect; but as the specimen in the British Museum, on which the description is founded, is acknowledged to be “the only one known,” I have not the least doubt that it is merely an accidental variety of the common species.

Like many other members of the large natural family to which it belongs, this species exhibits a strong tendency to variability of colour, and the slight differences which some of the ornithologists of Europe have recognized as sufficient specific characters, are of no value whatever. As a proof of this, I may here notice four remarkable examples that have come within my own knowledge in this country.

(1.) A specimen of Platycercus Novœ Zelandiœ brought to me by a native, in the Kaipara District, many years ago, had the whole of the plumage of a brilliant scarlet red.

(2.) A specimen obtained in the woods in the neighbourhood of Wellington, had the green plumage thickly studded all over with spots of red. This handsome bird was caged, and at the first moult the whole of the spots disappeared.

(3.) A young bird, brought to me from the nest, and not fully fledged, had the plumage of the body pale yellow, shaded with green on the upper parts, and the quills and tail feathers marked with red.

(4.) In the summer of 1863, I obtained a very beautiful variety of the common. Platycercus auriceps, at Manawatu. I found it in the hands of a labouring settler, who had purchased it from the natives for something less than a shilling. Finding him unwilling to part with it, I tempted him with a guinea, and secured the prize. It was a bird of the first year, and presented the following appearance :—Frontal band crimson, vertex golden yellow; space around the eyes and a band encireling the neck green; head, shoulders and lower part of back red, the intermediate space variegated with red and green; quills dusky, obscurely banded with yellow, and margined on the outer vane with blue; wing coverts greenish yellow, barred and margined with red; tail feathers green, obscurely barred with yellow in their apical portion. Under parts green variegated with crimson and yellow, an interrupted band of the former colour crossing the breast. Like the spotted variety already mentioned, within a short time it commenced to moult, and was fast assuming the common green livery of the species, when it was accidentally killed. This specimen, which still exhibits traces of its original colours, belongs now to the type collection of the Colonial Museum.

I think I may venture to assert, that had any one of these “occasional

varieties” found its way into the National Collection of Great Britain, or into one of the great contineutal museums, it would have been honoured with all the distinctions of a good and true species !

12. Nestor Meridionalis, Gmelin.

Dr. Finsch describes in graphic terms the delight with which he gazed upon a live Kaka (Nestor meridionalis), in the Zoological Society's Gardens, London, and speculates on the speedy extinction of the species; and Mr. Gould, in the Appendix to his Hand-book to the Birds of Australia (p. 549), expresses a hope that some of the residents of New Zealand will “study and record the habits and economy of this bird before it be extirpated, and its name and a few stuffed skins alone left as an evidence of its once having existed.” Although it cannot be denied that the Kaka is less common than it formerly was, it still exists in very considerable numbers in various parts of the country, and there is no present danger of the species becoming extinct. In the months of December and January, when the rata (Metrosideros robusta) is in flower, thousands of these birds are trapped by the natives, and preserved in their own fat for winter use. Partly owing to this cause, and partly to the extension of settlement, it is true that in some districts where in former years they were excessively abundant, their cry is now seldom or never heard; but in the wooded districts of the interior they are as plentiful as ever.

The cause of the rapid disappearance in these Islands of some species of birds, and absolute extinction of others, is a very interesting question. In a newly-colonized country, where the old fauna and flora are being invaded by a host of foreign immigrants, various natural agencies are brought into play to check the progress of the indigenous species, and to supplant them by new and more enduring forms, more especially in the case of insular areas of comparatively small extent. These agencies are often too subtle in their operation to arrest the notice of the ordinary observer, and it is only the ultimate results that command his attention and wonder. But in New Zealand some special cause, apart from this general law, must be assigned for the alarmingly rapid decrease of many of the indigenous birds. In the course of a very few years, species, formerly common in every grove, have become so scarce throughout the country as to threaten their extinction at no very distant date.

Various reasons have been suggested to account for this. The natives believe that the imported bee, which has become naturalized in the woods, is displacing the kaka, tui, and other honey-eating birds. One of the oldest settlers in the Hokianga District (Judge Maning), speaking to me on this subject said,—“I remember the time, not very long ago, when the Maori lads would come out of the woods with hundreds of korimakos hung around them in strings, now one scarcely ever hears the bird; formerly they swarmed in the northern woods by thousands, now they are well-nigh extinct.” On

asking him his opinion as to the cause of this, he told me that he agreed with the Maoris, that the bee having taken possession of the woods, has driven the honey-eating birds away from the flowers, and practically starved them out; and he referred to the scarcity of the tui, another honey-eater, in support of this view.^* But it must be remembered that both of these species subsist largely on berries and insects, and that the comparative failure of their honey food, even if granted, will not of itself account for the rapid decrease of these birds; while, on the other hand, the totoara (Petroica albifrons), and other species which do not sip flowers, are becoming equally scarce. It appears to me that the honey-bee theory is quite insufficient to meet the case, and that we must look further for the real cause. As the result of long observation, I have come to the conclusion that hitherto the chief agent in this rapid destruction of certain species of native birds has been the introduced rat. This cosmopolitan pest swarms through every part of the country, and nothing escapes its voracity. It is very abundant in all our woods, and the wonder rather is that any of our insessorial birds are able to rear their broods in safety. Species that nest in hollow trees, or in other situations accessible to the ravages of this little thief, are found to be decreasing, while other species whose nests are, as a rule, more favourably placed, continue to exist in undiminished numbers. As examples of this latter class, I may instance the kingfisher, which usually scoops out a hole for its nest in the upright bole of a dead tree, quite beyond the reach of rats, and appears to be more abundant now than ever; also the Rhipidura, Zosterops, Gerygone, and other small birds whose delicate nests are secured to slender twigs, or suspended among vines and creepers. And the ground lark, again, which nests in open grass or fern land, where the brown hawk (Circus Gouldi) keeps the rat well under control, has of late years sensibly increased being now very common. As a matter of fact, I have known a case in which half a dozen nests of the tui, within a radius of a hundred yards, were robbed by rats of both eggs and young.

In a letter which I had the pleasure of receiving from the Rev. T. Chapman, of Rotorua, some years ago, that gentleman states,—“Wild ducks were particularly numerous in this district on my arrival here: you saw them by dozens, —you hardly see them now by twos. I have no doubt we owe this to the Norway rat. There is a place on the Waikato River, some twenty miles below

Taupo, where the chiefs occasionally assembled to act out two important matters,—to discuss politics and eat kouras (cray-fish). A few years after the Norway rat fully appeared, the kouras were no longer plentiful, and as the New Testament made Maori politics rather unnecessary, the usage of meeting no longer exists. The natives assured me that the Norway rat caught the cray-fish by diving. Rowing up the rivers you see little deposits of shells. Upon enquiry I found they were the selections of the Norway rat, who, by diving for these fresh-water pipis, provide a kinaki (relish) for their vegetable suppers.”

In writing of theNestor hypopolius (=Nestor meridionalis), Gould remarks,—“A very great dissimilarity, both in size and colouring, occurs in different examples of this species, so much so as to induce a belief, both in my own mind and in that of others, that they may constitute two species. It will be a question for the colonists to determine if there be more than a single species, or if the differences seen in the skins sent to Europe are indications only of local varieties, and to what cause they may be due.”

In my former notes (Trans. N. Z. Inst., Vol. ii., p. 387), I stated that I had forwarded to Europe, for examination, specimens of a larger Nestor from the Middle Island, which differed considerably from the typical Nestor meridionalis. Mr. G. R. Gray, to whom I sent the skins, submitted them to Dr. Finsch for identification, and this naturalist refers to them in the Journal für Ornithologie, 1870, under the name of “Buller's Nestor montanus;” but this is a mistake, as I have never ventured to assign, or even to suggest, a specific name for this bird, although in writing to Mr. Gray I pointed out differences that might be deemed of specific value. In a letter to myself (under date July 13), Dr. Finsch observes,—“Mr. Gray sent me for examination the two Nestors [large and small] sent by you. I have inspected both with the greatest care, but I am not able to distinguish them as different species. In comparing only these two specimens, no one would hesitate to take them as distinct, but I have seen so many specimens of this Nestor that I would not be at all astonished to see examples differing even more than these. A specimen from the low-lands, sent by Dr. Haast, is quite inseparable from your Alpine Nestor. A general variation seems to be the rule in the genus Nestor. Scarcely two specimens are precisely and in every respect alike. This is not only the case with your common species, but also with the rare Nestor productus.”

I fully admit the great variability of colour in specimens of Nestor meridionalis, and have myself directed attention to it (vide Essay on New Zealand Ornithology, p. 11); but this is a question, not merely of colour, but of two distinct races, a larger and a smaller, and both confined to separate geographic areas.

It appears to me that it is not of the least consequence to science whether

Dr. Finsch and I can agree to consider them good and true species, or merely local varieties of Nestor meridionalis, so long as they can be sufficiently distinguished. On no subject, probably, are the views of modern zoologists more divided, than on the question of what constitutes a species and what a variety. The definition of the term “species” is, after all, purely arbitrary, and is determined in a great measure by the individual opinion of every naturalist. Extreme views are held on both sides, one class of naturalists contending that it matters not how small the difference is between two allied species, provided it be constant, while there is a growing tendency among another class to group together a large number of slightly different species, usually considered distinct, as merely local or climatic varieties of one typical form. “Between these opposite views,” to quote from a high authority, “there is certainly ample room for every shade of opinion. Every naturalist, indeed, has his own views on the matter. The fact is, that the amount of difference requisite to establish specific distinctness between two sets of individuals is, as has been well maintained by an eminent writer whose views are adverse to the real existence of species, a matter of opinion, and we should therefore be very careful in blaming writers whose ideas on this point may be at variance with our own.”

Of the two classes of “lumpers and splitters,” as they have been respectively termed, numerous examples might be given from the ranks of the best ornithologists. As an instance of the former, however, I may mention that Dr. Finsch has united, under Conurus pertinax, the species named C. œruginosus, C. chrysogenys, C. xantholœmus, C. ocularis, and C. chrysophrys. (Papagien, Vol. i., p. 506). It is not for me to say that a naturalist of Dr. Finsch's experience is wrong in this decision; but we have it, on the authority of Mr. Sclater, Secretary to the Zoological Society, that two of these forms, Conurus xantholœmus and C. chrysophrys, “living side by side in the Society's gardens, are very distinct species and certainly not to be confounded together,” (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 588.)

“Many years ago,” says Mr. Darwin, “when comparing and seeing others compare, the birds from the closely neighbouring islands of the Galapagos Archipelago, both one with another, and with those from the American main- land, I was much struck how entirely vague and arbitrary is the distinction between species and varieties. * * * Even Ireland has a few animals, now generally regarded as varieties, but which have been ranked as species by some zoologists. Several most experienced ornithologists consider our British red grouse as only a strongly marked race of a Norwegian species, whereas the greater number rank it as an undoubted species peculiar to Great Britain.” He further states that few well marked and well known varieties can be named which have not been ranked as species by at least some competent judges, and he summarises thus :—“Certainly no clear line of demarcation has as yet been drawn between species and sub-species—that is, the forms which in the opinion

of some naturalists come very near to, but do not quite arrive at, the rank of species; or, again, between sub-species and well marked varieties, or between lesser varieties and individual differences.“^*

Mr. Sclater, in his review of Gould's Monograph of the Trochilidœ, observes,—“We have never been able to draw the line between a species and a climatic variety, nor do we believe it is possible so to do. We therefore do not complain of Mr. Gould having given specific names to certain local forms, if it can be shown that they are invariably distinguishable by constant characters.”† ^† And another well known naturalist, Mr. A. R. Wallace, in writing on the Pigeons of the Malay Archipelago says,—“A permanent local variety is an absurdity and a contradiction, and if we once admit it, we make species a matter of pure opinion, and shut the door to all uniformity of nomenclature;” and he holds that where the difference, however trivial, is constant, the so-called varieties must be regarded as distinct species.

Practically, as it seems to me, it matters little whether these closely allied forms be characterized as species, races, or varieties, the true object of all nomenclature being to aid the student in the systematic arrangement of all existing organisms according to their natural affinities. But the too common practice of confounding well marked local forms on the mere supposition of specific identity, without actual examination and comparison, is a positive injury to the cause of science, and cannot be too strongly condemned. It is not only fatal to scientific accuracy, but renders it almost hopeless to arrive at correct conclusions on the geographical distribution of species, a subject of the highest interest to the philosophical naturalist.

13. Nestor Esslingii, De Souancé.

What is Nestor Esslingii? asks one of my correspondents. The question, though simple enough in itself, is not easily answered. The only specimen extant, so far as I am aware, is the one in the British Museum (which I have never had an opportunity of examining), and the several accounts given of the bird by those who profess to describe it, are so much at variance that local naturalists may well acknowledge themselves at fault respecting it.

M. de Souancé, the original describer of the species, says:—

“Le Nestor dout nous allons donner la description est, sans contredit, l'oiseau le plus remarquable de la collection Masséna. Intermédiaire entre le N. hypopolius et le N. productus, ce magnifique Perroquet réunit, dans son plumage, des détails caractéristiques de ces deux espéces. Coloration générale semblable à celle du N. hypopolius.”

Mr. Gould, in the Supplement to his Hand-book to the Birds of Australia, says of this species,—“A single specimen only of this magnificent Parrot has

come under my notice; and this example is perhaps the only one that has yet been sent to Europe. It formerly formed part of the collection of the Prince D'Essling, of Paris, but now graces the National Museum of Great Britain. It is in a most perfect state of preservation, and is without exception one of the finest species, not only of its genus, but of the great family of parrots. The native country of this species is supposed to be New Zealand; but I, as well as M. de Souancé, have failed to learn anything definite on this point. In size it even exceeds the great kaka (Nestor hypopolius), which it resembles in the form of its beak, while in its general colouring it closely assimilates to Nestor productus.”

Dr. Finsch, on the other hand, states in his Monograph, that Nestor Esslingii, De Souancé (of which the type is in the British Museum), is in size and general colour the same as Nestor meridionalis, but has the breast ash grey with brown terminal margins, and a broad yellowish white transverse band straight across the belly. Further on he speaks of both the original specimens from the Massena Collection being in the British Museum, and states that “they appear to be the only ones known.” He adds, that he was not able to make such an examination of them as he wished, owing to their being in hermetically closed glass cases, but quotes Souancé, to the effect that the red marks on the inner vane of the quills and tail feathers are precisely as in Nestor meridionalis; whereas Mr. Gonld distinctly says that while the tail feathers in N. meridionalis and N. productus are strongly toothed on the under surface with red, “in Nestor Esslingii no such marks occur, the toothing on the inner webs of the primaries is not so clear and well-defined, and the light coloured interspaces are more freckled with brown.”

As stated by Mr. Gould, there is no certainty about the type specimen of M. de Souancé having come from New Zealand. Dr. Finsch, however, regards it positively as a New Zealand species, and cites Dr. Haast as his authority. “No traveller (he observes) speaks of this rare bird, and only from a remark of Dr. Haast's does it appear that it really still exists. He says, in his interesting treatise on the kakapo (ver Handel des Kaiserl, Zool. Bot. Ver. Zer Wien., 1863, p. 116),—Nestor Esslingii is still to be seen in the forest districts, living on the berries of the numerous Alpine shrubs and on the roots of Alpine herbs,—the only remark we possess about the species.” But Dr. Haast has since written to me, asking what Nestor Esslingii is, and I gather from his correspondence that he mistook another bird (the large Alpine Nestor, which Dr. Finsch considers a mere variety of N. meridionalis) for the true Nestor Esslingii. There is, consequently, no positive authority for considering this a New Zealand species.

Not having access to the type specimen, and left in utter confusion as to its real characters by the discrepancies to which I have adverted, it is impossible for a local naturalist to hold any decided opinion respecting it. But assuming

Dr. Finsch's description to be strictly correct,—that it most nearly resembles Nestor meridionalis, from which it is only distinguishable by the broad yellowish white band across the under parts of the body, and considering the extreme tendency in that species to variability of colour, I should be inclined to regard the British Museum bird as an accidental variety of the common Kaka. Among the numerous abnormally coloured examples which I have seen, from time to time, varying from an almost pure albino to a rich variegated scarlet, I remember one which, although like the common bird in its general plumage, had a broad longitudinal band of yellowish white on the abdomen. The specific identity of this specimen with Nestor meridionalis was unmistakable.

14. Nestor Superbus, Buller.

Diagnosis.—Latere inferiore, capitis lateribus, torque nuchæ, tergo caudæque tectricibus et superioribus et inferioribus puniceis; pileo, pectore, humeris alarumque tectricibus superioribus flavis; alis albido-flavis; cauda cinereo-flava.

Dr. Finsch's remark that my Nestor superbus approaches nearest in colour to N. Esslingii and N. productus, does not tend to diminish the confusion which already exists. As we have already seen, this author makes the yellow bellyband almost the only distinguishing feature between N. Esslingii and N. meridionalis. Gould gives the following description of the Phillip Island bird (Nestor productus):—General colour of the upper surface brown; head and back of the neck tinged with grey, the feathers of these parts, as well as of the back, margined with a deeper tint; rump, belly, and under tail coverts deep red; cheeks, throat, and chest yellow, the former tinged with red; shoulders, on their inner surface, yellow tinged with rufous olive; tail feathers banded at the base with orange-yellow and brown; the inner webs of the quill- feathers at the base and beneath with dusky red and brown; irides very dark brown; bill brown; nostrils, bare skin round the eye, and the feet dark olive-brown.

A glance at the diagnostic characters above (as quoted by Dr. Finsch) will show that my Nestor superbus is a very differently coloured bird to either of these species.

15. Nestor Occidentalis, Buller.

Dr. Finsch disallowed this species, on the supposition that it was the large Alpine Nestor from the South, which he pronounces a mere variety of Nestor meridionalis. This surmise was a mistake; but, in a letter to me, he states that he is still inclined to believe that N. occidentalis is only another “variety” of the common species.

16. Nestor Notabilis, Gould.

This fine species is not quite so scarce as Dr. Finsch supposes. In referring to the two examples sent home by Mr. Mantell (the first pair received in Europe), he observes that they may be regarded “as the last of this extinct, or very nearly extinct, species,” but further on he mentions, on the authority of a private letter, the arrival of two specimens at the Vienna Museum.

As this bird inhabits the slopes of the Southern Alps, and is driven down to the plains only during very severe winters, it is not frequently met with; but explorers, like Dr. Haast, who have visited its Alpine haunts, report it comparatively common. A zealous friend in the back Mackenzie Country has obtained, at various times, no less than eight live specimens for me, but in every instance some accident has occurred to them in transitu, or they have managed to escape. I am informed that another pair of live ones are now on their way, and I trust that these may reach me in safety, for it would be of the highest interest to study the habits of a species at present so imperfectly known.

A specimen obtained by Dr. Menzies in the Otago Province, and presented by him to Sir George Grey, is now deposited in the Colonial Museum at Wellington.

17. Apteryx Australis, Shaw.

The first example of the Apteryx of which there is any record was obtained in New Zealand, about the year 1813, by Captain Barclay, of the ship “Providence,” and afterwards deposited in the collection of the late Lord Derby. This bird was first described, under the above name, by Dr. Shaw (Nat. Misc., Vol. xxiv., pls. 1057, 1058), and afterwards, at greater length, by Mr. Yarrell, in the Transactions of the Zoological Society (Vol. i., p. 71, pl. 10). On the 10th December, 1850, a series of specimens was exhibited before the Zoological Society of London, when Mr. Bartlett pointed out characters which, as he contended, established the existence of two species hitherto confounded under the specific name of Apteryx australis (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1850, p. 276). Mr. Bartlett stated, at this meeting, that an Apteryx belonging to the late Dr. Mantell having been placed in his hands by that gentleman, he had remarked its dissimilarity to ordinary examples, and that after a careful comparison with a number of other specimens he had come to the conclusion that it was a new species. On comparing Dr. Mantell's bird, however, with the original specimen in the Earl of Derby's collection, he found that they were identical. He accordingly referred his supposed new species to Ap. australis, and distinguished the more common bird as Ap. Mantelli—“A humble effort,” as he says, “to commemorate the exertions of Walter Mantell, Esq., to whom we are indebted for so many valuable discoveries in

the natural history of New Zealand.” The characters which distinguish it from Shaw's Ap. australis are,—“its smaller size, its darker and more rufous colour, its longer tarsus which is scutellated in front, its shorter toes and claws which are horn coloured, its smaller wings which have much stronger and thicker quills; and also in having long straggling hairs on the face.”

Mr. Bartlett stated further, that the Apteryx belonging to Dr. Mantell was collected by his son, in Dusky Bay, whence the original bird, figured and described by Dr. Shaw, was also obtained, and that so far as he had been able to ascertain, all the known specimens of Ap. Mantelli were from the North Island.

In a “Report on the present state of our Knowledge of the Species of Apteryx,” by Drs. Sclater and Hochstetter, read at a meeting of the British Association, in September, 1861, and published for general information in the New Zealand Gazette, in May, 1862, the following observation occurs respecting Ap. australis:—“In fact, the species is so closely allied to the Ap. Mantelli as to render it very desirable that further examples of it should be obtained, and a rigid examination instituted between the two. For the present, however, we must regard this form of Apteryx as belonging to the southern portion of the Middle Island.”

Mr. Gould, in the Appendix to his Hand-book to the Birds of Australia (p. 568), retains the original name for this species, but remarks:—“If Mr. Bartlett's view be correct, it is probable that the bird figured by me is the one he has named Ap. Mantelli.”

In my Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand, 1865 (Trans. N. Z. Inst., Vol. i.), I stated that only two examples of Ap. australis had been recorded (those noticed above), but Dr. Otto Finsch, in his review of my Essay, (Journal für Ornithologie, 1867, p. 331) observes:—“Our knowledge of Ap. australis, Shaw, is not confined to the two examples referred to by Mr. Buller. The Leiden Museum possesses one also, and there is a very fine specimen in the Imperial collection at Vienna.”

Never having seen the four examples of Ap. australis thus mentioned as existing in European collections, I cannot presume to offer any positive opinion respecting them; but having examined a large series of specimens in New Zealand, some forty in number, of all ages and collected from all parts of the country, I have no hesitation in saying that (excluding, of course, the well- known Apteryx Owenii) all of them are referable to one and the same species. Having also carefully inspected the drawings illustrative of the specific distinctions between Ap. australis and Ap. Mantelli (Proc. Zool. Soc.) and examined the characters on which Mr. Bartlett grounded his new species, I am strongly of opinion that it will be found necessary to drop Apteryx Mantelli as a species, and to refer all the examples thereof to the true Ap. australis.

Mr. Bartlett draws the following distinction as to the colouring of the two supposed species :—“Ap. Australis: Colour pale greyish brown, darkest on the back. Ap. Mantelli: Colour dark rufous brown, darkest on the back.” The above descriptions are applicable, the former to the female and the latter to the male of the common species.

Mr. Bartlett, in giving his measurements of the two birds, properly observes that the entire length, being taken from skins, is of very little value; but the difference in the general proportions (amounting to two inches in the length of the bill) is also characteristic of the two sexes, the female being considerably larger than the male.

The condition of wing, ascribed by Mr. Bartlett to Ap. australis, “with soft slender quills” (as figured in the Proc. Zool. Soc.), is that of the young bird. The length of the “straggling hairs on the face” varies in almost every individual, and is certainly of no value as a specific character.

Mr. Bartlett's strongest point is that one species has the tarsus scutellated in front, while in the other it is reticulated. The descriptive and comparative notes which I have collected on this point are too lengthy to be given here, but they will appear in my forthcoming work on the Birds of New Zealand. To summarize, I may state that I have found so great a diversity of character in the size and arrangement of the tarsal scales in different examples, that I do not attach very much importance to those peculiarities of structure in this respect, which Mr. Bartlett deems of specific value. I have observed a gradation from a regular series of quadrangular scutes, protecting the whole anterior portion of the tarsus, to a reticulated surface of large irregular scales, those towards the distal end being broadest. The latter condition appears to be characteristic of the immature bird, the scales being detached from each other and not imbricated, or with overlapping edges, as in the adult.

Figures 1 and 2 (.Plate XII.b.) represent the wing and foot in an ordinary adult female of the common species, the so-called Ap. Mantelli.

18. Ardea Sacra, Gmelin.

It is satisfactory to find that our Blue Heron (Ardea matook) has been finally identified with Ardea sacra of Gmelin; and that we are thus enabled to purge our list of so gross a corruption of the Maori, as “matook” for “matuku.”

19. Rallus Pectoralis, Lesson.

I think we are perfectly justified in considering our Rallus assimilis identical with R. pectoralis, the more so as Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub have been compelled to reduce their Rallus Forsteri to a synonyme of that species.

In a paper communicated to the Zoological Society of London (November 26, 1869), they observe:—“It is certainly disagreeable to kill one's own

children, but as to Rallus Forsteri we are fully convinced of our error. In a set of specimens from the Pelew Islands, some had the rufous pectoral band, in two others it was entirely wanting, and in one bird there was only to be seen a faint trace of it.” They, therefore, conclude that their so-called Rallus Forsteri is only a variety of age or season of the well known R. pectoralis, Lesson.

I have examined a large series of specimens in New Zealand, and although I have never seen one in which the pectoral band was absent, I have found it varying, both in extent and depth of colouring, from a narrow interrupted line of rufous brown to a broad zone of rich chestnut. In other respects all the specimens are very much alike.

20. Ocydromus nigricans, Buller.

Dr. Finsch is of opinion that the new Rail discovered by Dr. Hector in the Otago Province, and described by me in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (Vol. i., p. 111), is identical with Gallirallus fuscus, Du Bus, which, he states, Mr. Gray confounded with G. brachypterus, Lafr.

It is natural to enquire how, if Gallirallus fuscus be a well established species, it has hitherto been omitted from the List of New Zealand Birds? Although Dr. Finsch states that G. brachypterus (of which Gray considers G. fuscus a synonyme), “never occurs in New Zealand,” he includes it in his enumeration of New Zealand Birds, Journal für Ornithologie, 1867, pp. 346–347.

21. Phalacrocorax Novæ Hollandié, Stephens.

In his review of my Essay, Dr. Finsch observes (Journ. für Orn., 1867, p. 339),—“Graculus carboides cannot be separated as a species from our European G. carbo, Linn.” Referring to this, my friend, Captain Hutton, writes to me,—“I think Dr. Finsch is wrong in uniting our Graculus carboides with the European G. carbo. I was well acquainted with the latter in all seasons in the Crimea, and I am pretty well acquainted with Carboides up here (Auckland), and 1 feel sure that they are different.”

I agree with Captain Hutton in his view as to the specific distinctness of the two birds, but the so-called G. carboides must be referred to Phalacrocorax Novœ Hollandiœ, as originally described by Stephens (Cont. of Shaw's Gen. Zool., Vol. xiii., pl. 1, p. 93). It was noticed by Mr. Gould, and described (from Australian specimens) under the name of P. carboides in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society (Part v., p. 156). It appeared again under the same name in his great work on the Birds of Australia, where he states that it “exceeds in size its prototype, the Phalacrocorax carbo of Europe.” In his more recent Hand-book, Mr Gould has rectified the nomenclature, making his so-called P. carboides a synonyme of P. Novœ Hollandiœ, to which the New

extremity pointed, inner border slightly convex above lip, concave towards lip; superior border truncated, forming an obtuse angle with external border, which slopes away to the insertion of the palpus. Maxillæ and labium brownish-black, sparsely clothed with fine brownish hairs. Sternum heart- shaped; black, and somewhat hairy, especially towards the border. Vulva, a simple transverse opening without appendages; palish-brown, situated on the summit of a mammillary protuberance. Falces vertical, rather small, terminating below at the upper surface of the maxillæ, which project slightly beyond them. Abdomen sub-globular, very convex above, overhanging the base of the cephalothorax, anus and spinnerets not visible from above, upper surface a rich glossy blue-black, thinly clothed with black hairs, anteriorly are two interrupted yellow lines, formed like notes of interrogation with the convexities opposed, these are not visible from above; from the mid-point of the upper surface to the anus runs a bright scarlet band with vandyked borders; it may be described as consisting of four confluent lozenge-shaped spots; there was a slight indication of a yellowish bordering to the stripe. Under surface of abdomen black, with an obscure red patch on either side of the vulva; a similar patch anteriorly to the spinnerets.

I have been thus particular in my description, because, amongst spiders, individuals of different species so closely resemble one another, that a very minute description is necessary to enable an observer to decide the species with certainty.

Now, with regard to the venomous attributes of this spider. It belongs to a genus which contains several species also reputed poisonous; thus Walckenaër says of the Latrodectus malmignatus, an allied species, common in Sardinia, Corsica, and parts of Italy,—“This species is certainly poisonous; its bite causes, they say in man, pain, lethargy, and sometimes fever. M. Lingi Totti, Physician to the Hospital of the Madeline at Volterra, in a long memoir which he has sent us, confirms all that has been written concerning the effects of this spider by Boccone, Heyder, Rossi and others; however, its mandibles are not very strong and it is not large (about half an inch in length).” Mr Abbot, (who was ignorant of what had been written in Europe concerning the Latrodectus) in his Georgian Spiders, says,—“Of three species (of Latrodectus) which he has figured, that their bite in America is undoubtedly venomous.” (Walckenaër Histoire des Insectes Apteres, pp. 643, 644.) The fact is extremely interesting, that in a genus of spiders containing comparatively a very small number of species, these species are so widely distributed over the world as to be found in Europe, America, and New Zealand, all being highly noxious, and all, with one or two doubtful exceptions, being black with red markings; for colour is of all characteristics the most variable, and most particularly so in spiders.

So much has been fabled concerning the bite of the tarantula, a spider of

noiseless flight, one of the advantages it owes to its flocculent plumage; its cry of “morepork, morepork,” is repeated at frequent intervals, sometimes with the utmost rapidity of utterance; its course may thus be traced as it emerges from the wooded gullies in the hills, the sound re-echoed in the stilly night by the opposing heights.

The power of voice which has been conferred on the Strigidœ is one of the most remarkable features in their economy, this power is the more striking from being used when nature is hushed into repose; when the owl utters its startling sounds, whilst borne along on noiseless wing, the effect produced on its terrified prey would disclose its presence as surely as though discovered by a gleam of light, as it dashes frantically hither and thither in its wild efforts to escape, unnerved by the war-whoop of its enemy, whose soft, loose plumage enables it to follow the course of the quarry, not only silently but swiftly; far differently indeed from the impetuous rush of the falcon, swooping on its victim in mid-air, yet, perhaps, not the less sure. The course of its terrified prey would probably be tortuous, as it fled bewildered in the darkness, followed in its windings by the glowing orbs of its untiring, relentless pursuer, which could by raising or ruffling its downy feathers offer a resistance to the air that would instantly act as a break in checking such undue speed as might render the bird liable to overshoot its game.

The owl is far from being a timid bird, notwithstanding its love for gloomy shades; often in the summer moonlight have we watched it on a rail or fence close to the sea-beach, probably on the alert to seize various insects that frequented the thickets of Myoporum, Olearia, Leptospermum, etc.; oftener still have we observed it busy on a mousing expedition, at the barn and farm buildings. Allowing a very close approach, within a couple of yards, it was to be seen perched on a post or gate, motionless, all but a slight movement of the head, suddenly disappearing for a few moments, probably long enough to catch and entomb a mouse; its movements occasioned no sound that could be detected by an attentive ear. Now and then a short note was emitted, probably to scare its game into motion, which sounded like a grating scream of “tchoo, tchoo.”

Of its breeding habits we know but little. About three years since, two young birds were found in an old decayed tree in the bush by Cooper's Knobs, at the head of Lyttelton Harbour. An old breeding-place in a hollow rock in the bush at Ohinitahi, furnished a quantity of castings; from an examination of these, which contained remains of mice, Cicadœ, Coleopterœ, etc., it appeared probable that spiders, taken in their webs, formed some portion of their food.

Superstitious fancies, and even dread of the owl, has at times prevailed almost everywhere. “The oule eke, that of deth the bode ybringeth,” sang the father of English poetry, and we learn from Colenso that some of the Maori tribes disliked the owl, which they persecuted and killed. Should a

in the very act of making night hideous, so that all doubt has been removed as to the bird from which this startling cry proceeds; this night-call was referred to in “Notes on the Birds of New Zealand,” Trans., Vol. ii., pp. 45, 46.

In 1854, at Rockwood, in the Malvern Hills, we first became acquainted with the Wekau; it had been captured in a drain or ditch, and lived in a half-tamed state for some time, beneath the house, till unfortunately destroyed by a visitor's dog. At the present time a very fine owl may be seen at the Christchurch Acclimatization Gardens, where it has lived in confinement about two years; we believe it was obtained from the Cass River.

In its customary position, when at rest, the great length of the tarsi are concealed by the plumage of the breast, the head feathers are so raised as to increase the apparent size of the head, this lessens very much the hawk-like appearance which the prominent beak usually gives to preserved skins of this bird; the large brown eyes are very striking, but so sensitive that the owl apparently suffers great discomfort when forced into daylight; the irides then become scarcely discernable; the tarsi densely feathered, on examination appear remarkable for their depth no less than their length, the skin feeling loose or free to the touch; in dried skins this of course could not be observed; much of the peculiar character of the nostrils also is lost in preserved skins; the toes dull flesh colour, sparsely covered with hairs; the claws white, much curved, and sharp. The entire plumage is of warmer shades of brown than most of the specimens which we have seen, but has no claim to a white face; the outer edge of the facial disk, where it covers the auditory conch, is whitish grizzle; the nostrils appear raised or swollen. The Curator of the Gardens states that he has heard the cry uttered but rarely, it was of a most dismal character; it is fed on mice, rats, and birds; it refuses to eat any kind of meat that may be thrown to it; its sight is thought to be affected.

Some years since, we saw a fine bird which had been caught on the preceding night by a bushman, on the Upper Rangitata Flat; the intelligent captor signalized his good fortune by chopping off the head of his victim with the ever-ready axe. The look of satisfied triumph, as the bird was pointed at, we never saw equalled, except perhaps on one occasion, when a friend, fresh from town, entered the house with the mangled remains of a tame kaka, which he had blown almost to pieces in a kowhai tree, from whence poor Bess had unfortunately studied the stranger's face too closely. A Wekau entered a shepherd's whare at the foot of Mount Hutt, and remained for several days, perching in the roof; on one occasion it seized a mouse which a cat had just brought in. Another visitor of this species remained in a station on the Rangitata for some weeks. Last year, a fine light-coloured specimen was obtained at the Point Station, Malvern Hills; when killed it was perched on the rail fence, not many yards distant from the house. Of the examples in the Canterbury Museum, one was procured from the Kakahu Bush, near

Arowhenua; another, killed at the Levels Station, as before stated, was presented to the Museum by Mr. Donald Maclean.

Mr. E. Dobson states that the Waimatemate Maoris describe this owl as living in holes in the rocks; they call it Kakaha; they say it is as large as a pigeon (Carpophaga Novœ Zelandiœ), with a white breast, that it has a “wide mouth bill,” comes out at night only, and flies without noise.

Dr. Haast says that the owl provisionally named by Mr. Buller, Strix Haastii, is according to his opinion, Athene egulans; it was captured by his dog amongst the rocky precipices in a creek near the Lindis Pass, in the Province of Otago; he also states that one night, in 1861, when camping on the Upper Rangitata, under Mt. Potts, that judging from the noise there must have been many of these birds flying about, that he and his party were kept awake several hours by their shrieking clamour.

In May, 1857, while living in a tent on the Upper Ashburton, we were constantly disturbed at night by their doleful yells amongst the rocky mountain gullies.

Some of the finest specimens known are preserved in the Museum at Dunedin. (See “No. 4, Athene (Sceloglaux) albifacies.—‘Wekau’ or ‘Whekau’ of the Natives (specimen belonging to Mr. Clapcott),” in Dr. Hector's “Birds of Otago.” Jurors' Reports, 1865.)^*

When disturbed on the ground, it has burst forth into its weird-like cry immediately after taking wing. Its robust form, thickly clothed with soft feathers, is admirably adapted for encountering the severities of climate to which it must be frequently exposed whilst scouring its wild hunting grounds. Far less arboreal than its smaller congener, it roams over the bleakest tracts of country, in many districts where bush of any extent is rarely to be met with, finding shelter amongst the numerous crevices in the rocks of rugged mountain gullies; strictly nocturnal in its habits, in pursuit of its prey, it must brave the icy blast of the alpine snow storm at the lowest temperature. The severity of the climate in these elevated regions would scarcely be credited by those who have only known the mildness of the coast line. As may be inferred, the real home of this hardy raptorial is amongst the fastnesses of the Southern Alps, from whence it makes casual excursions, by the numerous river beds, to the lower lying grounds, these occasional visits extending as far as the plains. Although well known from its cry, not many specimens have been obtained, as fortunately for its preservation it is seen only at eventide or night. From the enormous increase in the numbers of the introduced rodents, the day is probably not far distant when the farmer will be as anxious for the preservation of the few groups of vermin killers as for the protection of game birds.

The introduction of Strix flammea to our widely spread agricultural districts would, it is believed, prove a boon of great value; many other species of perhaps equal worth might be imported through the aid of the flourishing acclimatization societies; much corn might, by this means, be saved from the damage occasioned by the depredations of mice, etc. The risks which the newlyimported bird has to encounter should not be forgotten; it has truly to pass through the ordeal of fire; perhaps the intense sporting, not to say destructive, instinct which is occasionally exhibited by certain of our fellow-settlers, may be the shadowy tradition of that once exclusive recreation of the great ones of the earth, that “gift of the gods,” that has been styled in earlier days, “Studium nobilium, communiter venanter, quòd sibi solis licere contendunt.”

It is gratifying to reflect on our march of progress and freedom even in such a small matter as this fowling; not that the result has been invariably a subject for congratulation. One of the earliest imported Tasmanian magpies was killed in Lyttelton; of the pair of “silver swans” that graced the Avon, one was bravely encountered and slain near Riccarton; and it was announced within the last few days, that the first partridge which had visited the Rakaia paid with its life for the privilege of gazing on the mighty “Sun stealer.”^*

The large owl has rarely reached Europe, as, according to Gould's Handbook to the Birds of Australia, Vol. ii., Appendix, only two specimens appear to be known there, one of which is in the British Museum. As standard works of reference here are as rare as “pearls of great price,” possibly it may be considered convenient to give the two descriptions of this bird from the pen of Mr. G. R. Gray, Voy. of Ereb. and Terr., Birds, and also that by Mr. Gould in his Handbook.

Mr. Gray's description of the specimen in the British Museum is as follows:—Dark brown, each feather margined on the sides at the tip with fulvous; quills and tertials brown, spotted with obsolete bands; tail dark brown, with five bands, and the tip of each feather rufous white; forehead and cheeks white, with the shaft of each feather black; tarsi covered with white feathers slightly tinged with rufous; toes covered with scattered white hairs. Length 1 foot 3½ inches; bill from gape 1 inch 4 lines; wings 11 inches; tarsi 2 inches 5 lines. This specimen was obtained at Waikouaiti.

Mr. Gould does not say distinctly whether the following description he

gives is from the same specimen:—Plumage of the upper surface, chocolate brown, each feather margined with fulvous; some of the scapularies with a lengthened mark of dull white within the margin, and others on the edge; primaries spotted along the outer margin with buffy-white; secondaries and tertiaries crossed by indistinct or interrupted bars of buffy-white, assuming on those near the body the form of spots; spurious wing very dark brown; tail brown, crossed by five narrow irregular bars of buffy-white and tipped with fulvous; facial disk pale sandy-brown, except on the forehead, throat, and ear coverts, which are whitish, each feather with a streak of brownisk black down the centre; feathers of the under surface deep fulvous, with a broad mark of deep brown down the centre of each, the former tint increasing on the lower part of the abdomen and thighs, when it again gradually fades into dull white on the lower part of the tarsi; toes sickly green, thinly beset with hair-like feathers; cere much developed and of a lead colour; bill bluish horn colour at the base, passing into yellowish horn colour at the tip, the under mandible yellow.

After examining the specimens (four), which are now accessible for the purpose of this paper, the description of the bird killed at the Point Station is given; it is the lightest-coloured example, and, as will be seen, it bears a close resemblance to those descriptions already presented. Upper surface brown, feathers margined with fulvous, some with a lengthened mark of dull white within the margin; primaries brown, spotted along the outer web with buffy- white, inner web indistinctly barred with lighter brown, these marks becoming dull white towards the basal part of the quill; secondaries and tertiaries brown, crossed by interrupted bars of buffy-white, occasionally marked with spots of the same colour almost oval in shape; tail brown, crossed by five irregular bars of buffy-white tipped with fulvous, mottled or clouded with pale brown; facial disk palish brown; forehead and throat grizzle-grey; ear coverts almost white, with long lanceolate streak down the centre of each feather; under surface rich fulvous, with a broad mark of dark brown down the centre of each feather; the apical portions of the light flocculent feathers of the lower part of the abdomen show fulvous; on examination, two-thirds of the basal portion of each feather is slaty-black; thighs fulvous; tarsi pale fulvous; toes yellowish flesh, with scattered hair-like feathers; cere much developed, reaching below the nostrils, which are raised; bill curved from the base, white clouded with horn colour. Measuring from gape to extremity of upper mandible 1 inch 4 lines; upper mandible extends beyond the lower 2 lines; wings slightly concave, nearly 13 inches, fourth quill feather longest; legs long; tarsi 2 inches 8 lines; total length 17 inches 3 lines.

A description of a specimen in the Dunedin Museum is as follows:— Length from top of head to end of tail 16⅜ inches; wing from tip to flexure point 10¼ inches; tarsus 3⅜ inches; hind toe and claw ⅞ inch; middle toe and

When perched on its commanding stand-point, from the tarsi being entirely concealed by the over-lapping breast feathers, its figure is greatly puffed out; its contour assumes a rotundity quite aldermanic. Its omnivorous propensities and monstrous appetite duly considered, perhaps the resemblance might be carried still further than a fancied likeness, when apparently suffering the pangs of repletion. This ravenous appetite, useful as it proves in many respects, we fear often leads its possessor into trouble. The Kingfisher is not afraid of man, does not shun the cultivated homestead; it finds the unplumed biped profitable, as in the sweat of his brow and by the toil of his strong hands, fields are ploughed and gardens dug where the root-matted earth has never been exposed before, and a rich feast is provided for the robust-beaked bird, into whose craving maw the larvæ of many destructive insects descend, to the great advantage of the cultivator. Its labours even then are not always gratefully appreciated; its gaudy plumage often ensures tribulation, perhaps death, and then in a glass case, surrounded by brilliant butterflies, seaweed, moss, shells, and such like appropriate accessories, it undergoes a species of apotheosis, from its place on high, glaring fixedly at the world beneath.

On looking at its favourite perches about the beach (it is a creature of habit, and makes use of the same resting place again and again), remains of Crustaceœ may be found, on posts, trees, rocks, thwarts or gunwales of boats; amongst the disjecta membra we have seen, yet rarely, the remains of fish. It does not wholly despise bees, thereby proving a distant cousinship with the Alcyonic Merops; that it devours “mice and such small deer” we know. Sometimes grave charges are preferred against our omnivorous friend, as may be gathered from the report of the Auckland Acclimatization Society for 1868–69:—“The Curator states that the Kingfisher has proved very troublesome in destroying birds, having killed a Californian quail and attacked another bird, which, however, made its escape.” In Otago they have been accused of purloining the speckled trout; in Christchurch Gardens, the shallow artificial streams, where the newly-hatched trout are nursed, receive the protection of wire netting, thus the young fish are kept safe, both from the fishing spear of this bird and the enterprising beak of the large shag. The Curator found by examination that out of about a dozen Kingfishers that had been destroyed, not one contained remains of small birds.

On the whole, there is no doubt that it is far better policy for the settler to protect this useful bird, as an insect destroyer, than to persecute it for an occasional attack on small birds or young fish; with anything like good management, loss to any extent from this cause might be avoided.

When its prey is captured, it is very rarely eaten on the ground; the shortness of the tarsi (only about 6 lines in length), and the comparatively feeble feet are not adapted for locomotion, either by walking or climbing. Its keen eyesight is remarkable; amongst grass it can detect an insect,

Nest of zosterops lateralis.

On Ptoris aquilira.

Nest of pogonornis cincta.

bencath the high bank of some shady creek; the bough usually selected stands out well from the main stem, not too close to other branches. The foundation of the nest is laid by adroitly securing the slender chips of decayed wood with lines of cobweb to the spray selected; this delicate operation must of necessity be a work of great difficulty, “c'est le premier pas qui coute;” in places where splinters of decayed wood were not to be obtained, we have noticed that the glumes of a coarse grass have been used instead. Who could fail to admire the persevering efforts of these little architects; what dexterity and cleverness have been employed in raising the frail platform on which is to be built the thick felted wall of the snug home. At the next stage, additional exertions are called forth; from the variety of materials required, longer flights become necessary for their collection, mossy stones and roots are scrutinised, and places frequented by live stock visited; fine grasses, thread-like roots, dead leaves or skeletons of leaves, hair, green tufts of moss with tiny imbricated leaves, and the down of tree ferns, are now wanted, crevices are searched, and the numerous holes before which “the murderous spider,” lurking in the dark, has spread the treacherous net.

It is whilst collecting cobwebs that the plumage of the Flycatcher is exhibited to the greatest advantage; hovering on the wing, the fan-like tail outspread to the utmost width, with rapid gyrations they move round the spot till enough has been secured for a load; the quantity made use of would surprise those who have not witnessed these labours; it is the most important element in felting; in fact, it is the mortar of the future structure. Whilst building, the exterior of the wall is always kept higher than the centre of the nest, so that at an early stage of its progress it looks saucer-like in shape; the birds (for both join in the labour, although the female appears to undertake the greatest share) try the strength of their work in every way; it is well trampled, the webs are carried from the interior to the outside in festoons from left to right, and right to left, as far down as the beak can reach; this working in of the web is persevered with throughout the entire building of the fabric, thus the materials are repeatedly braced together. As the wall rises, the bird, with tail elevated, is itself the mould by which the rounded cavity is beauti- rully shaped; seated in the centre of the rising structure, it turns round repeatedly, fluttering the wings, which action keeps the wall pressed out to its proper shape, the head and chin is pressed on the top, the materials pulled in towards the centre; this manœuvre is performed at frequent intervals. So earnest are these little workers that they scarcely rest for hours; sometimes, by a sudden flutter, they obtain a few insects, or the creek is visited for water; the cock now and then finds time for a brief twitter, moving its head from side to side, as if criticising or admiring the result of their united exertions, but quickly both are at work again. Whilst watching one of these birds drinking at the creek, with an air of such evident refreshment, it occurred to

us that the time of incubation is an interval of necessary rest between building the home and rearing the young, those times of incessant labour.

Towards the completion of the home, as it assumes a cup-like form, a still more abundant use of cobweb may be noticed, the festoons are multiplied, the wall being finished off with numberless ties and braces; the interior is now lined with fern-down, the slender fruit stalks of moss, or other soft material other than feathers, and the structure is complete, and admirably finished; it is warm, strong, and elastic, and so well felted that it is not easily pressed out of shape; it is a marvel of construction, effected by the beaks of two small birds which have had numberless other offices to perform; all their food during the time has had to be found and caught, assisted by no store of fruit or grain to supply their wants, requiring only discovery. A few notes are appended, which touch on the peculiar form of the nest of R. flabellifera in certain situations only; as far as our observations reach, several theories have been aired in order to account for this singular form of structure.

Jan. 2.—A nest was observed in a small plant of Aristotelia racemosa, just above the creek, by the farm buildings; the construction somewhat resembles the homes which have been figured of R. albiscapa, a portion descending in a tail-like form below the spray on which the structure is built. (See Plate VIII.)

The use of this appendage is not very clear, but we have observed that part of the creek where this nest was found has several bends in it; it is probable that at such a turn, sudden drafts or gusts of wind might, by agitating the spray, endanger the safety of the eggs in a nest, the cavity of which scarcely reaches 1 inch 6 lines in depth; would not the resistance offered by this peculiar addition lessen any such danger by diminishing the extent of the vibration? It may be asked how it is the instinct of the bird does not lead to the selection of a spot where such a precaution would be unnecessary; the answer to this is, that this particular place, from its immediate contiguity to the stockyard, bullock sheds, etc., offers special inducements to a purely insect- eating bird, as it affords an extraordinary food supply from the numbers of small insects which there assemble. This is the third example from the same locality.

Jan. 8.— The nest contains four young birds and two addled eggs, and is being enlarged by the addition of a slight rim all round the wall; the interior is kept clean by the old birds removing the white pasty excrement as soon as extruded by the young, dropping it a few yards off; 10th—the two strongest birds left the nest; a bell-bird which made some menacing darts at them was driven off by the old birds acting in concert; the young were fed on an ayerage of about once a minute. April 26.—The fantails now frequent the house, clearing the rooms of flies, which they effect whilst on the wing, picking them off the curtains, ceilings, etc.; the most difficult feat appears to bo in taking them off the side walls. August 6.—Saw R. fuliginosa with a

large insect, beating it several times against its perch (kingfisher fashion) before swallowing it; have also observed the foot used as a claw when feeding on a large fly. Oct. I.—Found on a sapling Fagus, a union nest, on which was the cock (R. flabellifera); 2nd—the hen (R. fuliginosa) was on the nest; it contained three eggs; these, together with the nest, were taken, with very great reluctance, but it was thought they might help to convince anyone who was sceptical as to the two species breeding together; a fact that could not be established by the most assiduous study of preserved skins. So tame was the hen bird that it permitted the nest to be cut out of the young tree, carried from the bush over a gorse fence and ditch, without moving from her position till gently pushed off her eggs with the finger, her pied mate fluttering near, twittering what was doubtless a reproachful protest against such barbarous cruelty; 22nd—saw another nest similar in build to that noticed under date Jan. 2, depth of cavity only 1 inch 3 lines; from its situation at a bend in the creek, it would appear rather to confirm the idea that has been suggested as the reason which guided the little architects in making this curious addition to their neatly-built home. As far as we have observed, this mode of nidification is restricted to R. flabellifera, the species that approaches most nearly to R. albiscapa. Should not this lead to a closer examination of the specific differences which separate our pied Flycatcher from its Tasmanian congener. Perhaps the form of nest which ornithologists give to R. albiscapa may be exceptional, as in the case of R. flabellifera.

Oct. 23.—Found this afternoon a nest with only the foundation laid, about an inch in diameter, which was being built by birds that had a brood of three young ones to feed; 25th—scattered, in the vicinity of the nest, short lengths of different coloured wools, worsted, cotton wool, cow hair, white horse-hair, etc.; 26th—saw some of the material supplied yesterday made use of; 27th—nest completed, contained one egg, rim of the wall finished off with white horse-hair, pink wool, etc.; 28th—hen on the nest, cock singing close by; the hen left the nest, when the cock immediately took her place whilst she fed; 29th—three eggs. Nov. 14.—Four young hatched; 27th—young left the nest.

Jan. 7.—A union nest, in which were young birds in this instance; the cock was R. fuliginosa; 10th—the young birds had left the nest and were flying about the tree in which it had been built, with great vivacity; they exactly resembled the offspring of R. flabellifera, but showed even a greater share of activity; it was the most vigorous brood of Flycatchers we had noticed during the season. Was this superior display of energy owing to the cross between the parent birds? Is the alliance between individuals of distinct species at all common with any other genus of birds? We noticed that the cock bird R. fuliginosa was as assiduous in his attentions to his young family as the hen, notwithstanding the birds were of a different feather to himself.

their propagation. Its love of insect food, and the toil which it undertakes for the sake of gratifying this appetite, which Nature has implanted in this bird, materially affect the economy of the timber forests it inhabits. Although so often accused of injuring trees by stripping down the bark, from careful observation we do not believe a flourishing tree is ever damaged by its beak; it is the apparently vigorous, but really unsound tree that is attacked, already doomed by the presence of countless multitudes of insects, of many varieties of which it is at once the food and refuge, either in their perfect or larvæ state.

In the persevering and laborious pursuit of this favourite food, the Kaka doubtless lends his assistance in hastening the fall of decaying trees, the loosened strips of bark, dissevered, admit to the exposed wood, rain, moisture collected from dews and mists to be dried by evaporation, by the heat of the sun, by the desiccating winds, only to become saturated again; under this alternation the insidious fungi take root, decay rapidly sets in, the close-grained timber gives place to a soft spongy texture, branches drop off, and gradually the once noble-looking tree succumbs to its fate; but its gradual decay and fall, the work of years, has proved beneficial to the surrounding plants, the dropping of the branches admits light and air to the aspiring saplings, assists in checking the undue spread of lichens and epiphytes, and when the old stem falls, tottering down from its rottenness, its place is supplied by vigorous successors. In estimating the value of its labours as an insect-eater, it should not be forgotten that the Picidœ family is entirely absent from our bird system, and that upon this indefatigable climber devolves some share of the duty of representing that peculiar group of forest birds.

Living in trees, when disturbed it hops amongst the branches with much dexterity, beak and wings assisting its awkward-looking but rapid progress as it threads its way amongst leaves and sprays with unruffled plumage; the peculiar formation of its grasping feet enable it to execute wonderful feats of agile climbing. A sharp short note or two marks its uneasiness when a vigilant eye watches what takes place below; when really alarmed, after a few hurried movements, it flies some short distance, at first start usually gliding downwards rather than flying straight, threading the leafy maze of the close-growing trees with perfect ease and grace, at this time it warns its fellows of impending danger by uttering loud oft-repeated cries of “kaka, kaka.” In all probability it derived its native name from its alarm note. It can readily be imagined that in those times when only the rudest and least effective weapons were in use, long prior to the period at which the Maori became acquainted with the death-dealing gun, how frequently frightened or wounded birds escaped the uncertain missiles, uttering loud cries of terror; vexation or hunger would soon impress this call on the mind of the disappointed hunter. We have ever thought it a miserable sight to watch the Kaka, when severely wounded,

uttering its low smothered cries of distress and pain; how the wretched bird endeavours to save its fall from the leafy shelter by clinging to bough and spray with desperate tenacity, often seizing its wounded limb with its powerful beak, as if to tear away the burning agony from which it suffers. Truly gregarious, it is social even in distress; numbers gather round their wounded companion to fall easy victims to the gunner. Often in the bright sunshine, scores may be observed, with loud screams and chatter, flying and circling about, and, high above the outskirts of the bush, apparently bent on enjoying some short excursion; now and then an individual more hilarious than his fellows, after a somewhat slow and laboured ascent, will suddenly dart downwards, perpendicularly, with almost closed wings; this feat is doubtless performed to an appreciative and admiring circle, if one may judge from the clamour of the company.

The Kaka we think to be less gregarious when travelling than at almost any other time; when migrating from one part of the country to another, it proceeds on its journey at a considerable height, uttering at intervals a brief note that sounds something like “t-chrût, t-chrût,” then, perhaps, a whistling call of When matched, the pair may be observed constantly together; if one moves from a tree its attentive partner quickly follows. The nesting place has to be prepared; for this purpose a tree is usually selected the heart of which is completely decayed; it must have a convenient hole leading from the outside to the bottom of the hollow; the interior requires some preparation perhaps, or the entrance has to be smoothed or enlarged; the pair may be frequently observed busy for the comfort and safety of their prospective offspring, sometimes a certain degree of fastidiousness is disclosed in making these preparations. After a home is made ready, it often happens that in place of being occupied it is deserted for some more eligible locality. It lays its four white eggs on the decayed wood, without any further supply of softer material by way of nest. As an instance of devoted attachment to its young, it may be mentioned that we have found the old bird dead at the entrance of its nesting

hole after a bush fire, in which it had perished rather than desert its helpless offspring, yet, from the nature of the locality, escape would have been easy.

The summer time is occupied by the cares of providing for and protecting the young; after they are old enough to shift for themselves, as autumn advances, the Kaka usually becomes very fat; as it is considered savoury food, great numbers are annually destroyed. It is in winter time that it appears to the greatest disadvantage, especially during a severe winter in our Southern climate, when the bush is metamorphosed with fantastic snow- wreaths, it seems out of character with the scene; food may be scarce, for with ruffled feathers it sits moping and nearly silent, a picture of dull melancholy. Towards the close of winter (August) we have known it devour with avidity the hard seed of the kowhai (Sophora tetraptera); at this period gardens and shrubberies are visited, and blossoms of almond trees and flowering shrubs eagerly ransacked; as winter passes away with its coarse fare, returning spring restores the Kaka's sprightliness, and he begins to fare daintily. In September we have observed it poised on the slender bough of some tall Panax, luxuriating on the viscid nectar of its blossoms; happy enough it looks when thus seen through some opening in the bush, its deep red breast-feathers lit up by the slanting rays of the declining sun; sated at last, it cleanses its huge beak against a neighbouring bough, then, with grateful chatter, glides off to join its fellows.

Insects form no inconsiderable portion of its food, how diligently they are sought for may be judged from the heaps of bark chips that lie beneath decaying trees; often it may be noticed on the ground tearing away the mossy clothing of the huge gnarled roots that spread around, even the soft rotten boughs are gnawed to obtain the larvæ of some of the larger bush insects. Not only does it regale on flowers and insect food; in the Fagus forests, in the bark of the black birch trees may be found a dull red fleshy- looking grub, tightly embedded in the hard bark, quite beneath the black velvety moss that wraps the Fagus like a pall; the wound made by this unsightly insect causes in spring time a sweet honey-like exudation, most frequently taking the form of a fine white filament, terminating in a small bright globule, glistening like a dewdrop; glancing upwards, the tall straight- grown stem appears spangled with multitudes of these bright threaded beads. This is a favourite feeding ground of several arboreals. The varied modes of locomotion employed form an interesting study, leading to enquiry and reflection upon their structure, their muscular and osseous systems, thus opening out a wide field for physiological observation. Of these hungry climbers the robust-framed Kaka occupies the foremost rank for size, its hold on the bole of the tree is secure, its movements deliberate, whilst its thick tongue is actively employed in gathering the honey-sweet meal.

The Kaka is easily snared, and very soon becomes tame if allowed liberty

about the premises, its ready confidence quickly transforms a pet into a plague. Let those who doubt its omnivorous propensities allow it access to a dairy, and watch the deft manner in which it manages to clear the cream from the pans.

Having entered so minutely into the habits of a bird so well known as the Kaka, it appears unnecessary to append a description, further than a few words about the tongue, etc., as some doubt has existed as to its position as one of the Trichoglossinœ, and whether its tongue is furnished with a brush- like termination or not. The tongue is thick, fining down towards the point, not unlike a finger; the superior side is flattish, the under side is rounded and furnished with a row of short stiff papillæ, black in colour; this brush-like apparatus can scarcely be said to form the termination of the tongue, it really occupies a similar position on the tongue which the margin of the nail occupies on the human finger; on the inside of the lower mandible may be observed, just within the deeply channcled lip, a row of minute yellowish dots, very slightly raised above the surface of the mandible; at the sides these specks give way to very faintly marked furrows, probably to clear the papillæ by the pressure of the tongue against the lower mandible. Those who have only seen dried skins, may not be aware that the upper and lower mandibles are connected by a thin tough skin, which allows the beak to open widely, and gives great freedom to the movements of the lower mandible; about the middle of this skin, in a line with the gape, a shallow sac or pouch exists, containing a wax- like substance.

Having only recently enjoyed the pleasure of reading Gould's Handbook to the Birds of Australia, we were not aware how little was known of the Kaka; a desire to carry out a wish therein expressed for further information about this bird must form the apology for entering so minutely into its habits. A difficult task it would be, even for an accomplished ornithologist, to give anything like a strictly accurate description of the Kaka's plumage, which should at the same time be supposed to represent satisfactorily and correctly the appearance of that of the species; so great is the variation in numerous minor points, that it offers great temptations to subdivision. As children, we used to be told that no two leaves were precisely alike of the gold and green mass that made up the foliage of the variegated sycamore; we have been reminded more than once of this piece of folklore when looking at a number of our parrots. Mr. Buller, in Essay (p. 11), alludes to several varieties in the feathers of the Kaka. Most noticeable must this variation of plumage appear to those who have enjoyed opportunities of inspecting specimens which have presented a change and difference of feather so remarkable as in those birds which, under the names of N. superbus or N. occidentalis, have been classed as separate species. Here is a change indeed; instead of the accustomed dress of sober brown, relieved from positive dulness by an olive shade, our usually demure- looking friend appears decked out in bright trappings of canary yellow with

trees, in which the brown tinted totara, the silvery Phyllocladus with its purplish points, the small leaved kohai, and the soft bright foliaged ribbonwood contrast well with the dusky hue of the dark leaved Fagus; far above, dwarf vegetation, in all the wonderful variety of alpine shrubs and flowers, struggles up the steepest slopes, adorning the frowning precipice and foaming cascade, lending its aid in forming scenes of picturesque and romantic grandeur, in which rich and varying tints of perennial verdure gratify the eyes of the spectator with their beauty. This is the home of the Kea. Amongst holes and fissures in almost inaccessible rocks, in a region often shrouded with dense mists or driving sleet, where the north-west wind rages at times with terrific violence, here the Green Parrot may be observed, entering or leaving crevices in the rocks, or soaring with motionless wings from peak to peak, far above the screaming kaka or the chattering parroquet; the swift-winged falcon is perhaps the sole intruder in its wild domain.

At early dawn its peculiar note is heard, very like the mewing of a cat, though in some of the more secluded gullies it may be noticed throughout the day; it really appears to wake up into activity at dusk, being, to a certain extent, nocturnal in its habits. It is scarcely less gregarious than its congener, N. meridionalis. In the moonlight nights of winter, numbers have been observed on the ground feeding. It can hardly be deemed an arboreal bird in the strict sense of the term.

The rigour of a hard winter, when the whole face of the alpine country is changed so as to be scarcely recognizable under a deep canopy of snow, is not without its influence on the habits of this hardy bird; it is driven from its stronghold in the rocky gully and compelled to seek its food at a far less elevation, as its food supply has passed away gradually at the approach of winter, or lies buried beyond its reach. The honey-bearing flowers have faded and fallen long before, the season that succeeded with its lavish yield of berries and drupes that gaily decked the close-growing Coprosmas, the trailing Pimelias, or the sharp-leaved Leucopogon, has succumbed to the stern rule of winter; nor has this change of season affected the Flora of the Alps alone, the insect world, in a thousand forms, which enlivened every mountain gully with the chirp and busy hum of life now lies entranced in its mummy state, as inanimate as the torpid lizard that takes its winter's sleep sheltered beneath some well-pressed stone. Under the effects of such a change, that cuts off such a supply of food, the Kea gradually descends the gullies, where a certain amount of shelter has encouraged the growth of the kohai that yields its supply of hard bitter seeds, the beautiful Pittosporums with their small hard seeds packed in gluten, and the black-berried Aristotelia; these and numerous other shrubs, or trees, such as the pitch pine and totara, furnish the means of life to the Parrot. It is during the continuance of this season that we have had the best opportunities of becoming somewhat familiar with it.

Within the last few years it has discovered the out-stations of some of the “back country” settlers. Of course, every station has that indispensable requisite, a meat gallows; it has found out and fully appreciates the value of this institution, as occasionally affording an excellent supply of food; the gallows is generally visited by night, beef or mutton equally suffer from the voracity of the Kea, nor are the drying sheepskins despised. These visits may be looked upon quite as social gatherings, as it is by no means a rare occurrence for a score of noisy Parrots to be perched on the roof of a hut at one time. A son of the writer obtained some fine specimens by means of a very simple snare—the noose made of a slender strip of flax leaf attached to the end of ricker or rod; he describes them as exhibiting great boldness and confidence, clambering about the roof of the hut, allowing a very close approach; when canght they remained quite still, without any of the noisy fluttering which usually accompanies the capture of birds, even when managed with adroitness; they preserved this quiet demeanour till the noose had been removed. One of these birds was placed on the floor under an inverted American bucket, the places for the handle not permitting the rim of the bucket to touch the ground; the Kea taking advantage of this, wedged its long beak into the space, using its head as a lever, it moved the bucket, raising it sufficiently to effect an escape from its prison.

On the other side of the river, just opposite to where this is being written, one station is greatly favoured by these visitors; during the winter season they become a perfect nuisance. On one occasion the hut was shut up, as the shepherd was elsewhere required for a day or two, on his return he was surprised to hear something moving within the hut; on entering, he found it proceeded from a Kea, which had gained access by the chimney; this socially- disposed bird had evidently endeavoured to dispel the ennui attendant on solitude by exercising its powerful mandibles most industriously; blankets, bedding, and clothes, were grievously rent and torn, pannikins and plates scattered about, everything that could be broken was apparantly broken very carefully, even the window frame had been attacked with great diligence; in fact the bird gave a new reading to that moral line of warning,—“For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.”

Notwithstanding the high character various individuals of the species have earned for occasional indulgence in mischief, several have been kept as pets,— not in wooden cages by-the-bye, for a Kea has been seen by his gratified captor to eat its way out of such a place of confinement almost as quickly as it had been coaxed to enter into it. Two which had been tamed by a neighbouring friend were permitted to wander at large, they regularly returned to the house for their meals, and then rambled away again, scrambling and clamouring amongst the trees and outbuildings; any kind of food appeared to suit their accommodating appetite, but a piece of raw meat was evidently the bonne bouche.

On the level ground its mode of locomotion is very peculiar, it is not so much a walk as a kind of hopping jump, which imparts a very odd appearance to its gait; but when its strong climbing foot is observed, this is not to be wondered at; at a glance it will be seen how inferior is the strength and power of the two inside, in proportion to that of the outer toes; the short tarsi are also unfitted for walking.

In addition to the superior size of the bird and the colour of its plumage, the beak presents a marked contrast to that of the kaka; it is smoother, less curved, and much slighter, with a length of 2 inches from the gape to the point; the upper mandible, at the widest part,—that is in a line with the nostrils,—measures 5½ lines in width, with a height of 7 lines. In flight and voice the two species greatly differ. There is no doubt the Kea breeds in the crevices of its rocky haunts; the kaka occasionally rears its young amongst rocks also. The eggs of the Green Parrot are as yet, we believe, amongst the desiderata of the New Zealand ornithologists.

Although comparatively few people are acquainted with the bird, it is not on that account to be considered rare; the reason it is so little known is, the remoteness of its habitat from the centres of population; it certainly appears to be very local in its distribution; a straggler now and then has been observed far from its usual hunts, for in one instance we have a note of its occurrence at the Hororata, in the Malvern Hills, close to the edge of the Canterbury Plains. Its beak can inflict a severe wound; a friend of ours, incautiously handling a pet, had his thumb bitten through by its powerful mandibles.

The following descriptions are taken from two specimens obtained on the banks of the Havelock; their crops were well filled with seeds of a Pittosporum;—

Male.—Bill smooth, curved; upper mandible dark horn colour, lightest at the culmen, approaching to black near the base, the inside marked with slight longitudinal furrows; lower mandible yellowish on the sides, furrowed on the inside; sere, covering the base of the upper mandible at its widest part, measuring 5 lines; nostrils raised or swollen; upper part of the plumage dull green with a silvery shade; shafts of feathers dark brown; feathers tipped sometimes margined with dark brown; forehead brownish green; featbers which rest against the gape produced into hair-like points; under parts dull silvery green with brownish wash; nape silvery green with almost a collar of dark brown; quill feathers, the third and fourth are the longest in the wing, dark brown, the basal part of the four first feathers blue on the outer web; inner web dark brown toothed with pale yellow; the rest of the primaries of a brighter blue on the outer web; secondaries bluish green on the outer web, inner web brown, toothed irregularly with pale yellow; under wing coverts yellow and bright scarlet slightly tipped with brown; tail, shaft of feathers produced beyond the web, dull green shot

July, 1862), we find this bird mentioned under the name of Charadrius frontalis, with this very remarkable note: “The bird is represented in the Voyage of the ‘Astrolabe,’ with a deformed bill; the bill is perfectly straight in most specimens.” Where could the author have met with those specimens with perfectly straight bills? or rather, which of the waders or plovers passed for the Anarhynchus?—perhaps C. bicinctus.

I have lately had the pleasure of perusing a very interesting pamphlet, On Rare or Little-known Limicolœ, by Mr. Hastings, F.L.S., etc., who appears to have taken great pains in gathering together all the information he could collect about this peculiar-looking bird, and also gives a careful description of a specimen, in which he unquestionably makes the best of the slender materials at his disposal.

Still, as something like mystification might yet be thought to surround the history of this very interesting species of the large Grallatorial family, I have had much pleasure in presenting to the Museum, specimens of the adult, and also the young bird in the state in which it may be found probably some ten days from the date on which it emerged from the shell.

These specimens were obtained on the shingly bed of the Rakaia, which is one of the largest of the snow rivers that intersect the Plains of Canterbury. The Anarhynchuc. č.Charadrius Bicinctus.

Plover, I will now proceed to describe these specimens; the first, that of an adult male, probably in its second year—bill black, longer than the head, pointed, curved to the right or off side, curled slightly in itself in a leaf-like manner, a long groove on each side of the upper mandible, the nostrils long, pierced not far from the base of the bill, fitted with a membranous process, which, apparently furnished with a system of nerves, extends some distance along the mandible; interior of both upper and lower mandible concave or sulcate, which form is maintained to the point; thus, the inside of the bill, when the mandibles are closed, becomes a curved pipe, with a very slight twist; the sharp edges of each mandible are horny and semi-transparent; from the base of the bill the upper mandible is flattened on the top for a distance of about 6 lines, it then assumes a raised and slightly rounded form, till it gradually sweeps down into the point; forehead, chin, and the whole of the under parts white, with a broad irregular band of blackish feathers stretching across the breast, widest on the left or near side; above the bill, from eye to eye, runs a narrow strip of very pale brownish colour; crown of the head and upper surface of the body ash grey; wings long and pointed; primaries dark brown, outer narrow vane of each primary darkest; shaft of feathers distinctly white; first feather longest; tail moderate, ash grey, middle feathers inclined to brown; legs gartered, or naked just above the tarsal joints; legs and feet a peculiar tint of black-green with a grey shade; toes three to the front and none behind, united at the base by a membrane extending to the first joint, bottom of toes greenish brown, middle toe and nail longest, nails short and black. Bill measures 1 inch 2 lines; wing 4 inches 9 lines; tarsus 1 inch 2 lines; middle toe with nail 11 lines; total length 8 inches 5½ lines.

The chick above mentioned is covered with freckled grey down; under surface silky white; wings pale brownish; the deflection of the bill easily distinguishable. Bill measures 6 lines; tarsus 10 lines; middle toe with nail 8 lines; total length 2 inches 8 lines.

Birds of the year do not assume the black band; females differ little from the males in size, the band is not so conspicuous, as it is much narrower than in the male; fine old males have the breast band broad, and that on the forehead dark brown. I have never seen this bird assemble in large flocks like C. bicinctus.

The peculiar formation of the bill has apparently induced naturalists to exhibit considerable doubt as to the proper position of this, perhaps, unique species. Without referring to all the notices of this bird which have appeared at different times, it may be mentioned that at least one eminent ornithologist considered the bill to be an accidental deformity; again, it has in some way been confused with C. bicinctus, from which it differs materially, in habits as well as structure.

A consideration of the natural features of its favourite haunts permits us to indulge in surmises as to the convenience and adaptability of its remarkable form of beak for obtaining its food. Where we have seen it has never been far from water, and if, as we presume, this bird is peculiar to this country, we can point to our larger river beds as affording it admirable feeding grounds. These rapid shallow streams are perpetually wandering and shifting in their course, cutting new channels after every freshet, whether occasioned by heavy rainfalls or by the melting of snow from the alpine crests of the “back country.” Anyone acquainted with our “plains” must have observed, here and there, how certain parts (termed by geologists, “fans”), are thickly covered with stones—as, for instance, some miles below the Gorges of the Rakaia or Rangitata;—however unpromising or useless they may appear to the inexperienced, the practical grazier is aware that those stones assist in keeping the ground cool, and in retaining beneath them a certain amount of moisture which, during the drier portion of the year (when the parching north-west winds prevail), thus invigorates the thirsty rootlets of many valuable grasses, and the result is the maintenance of a fair number of sheep on this rather barren-looking stretch of country. When any of these stones are disturbed from their bed, who can have failed to notice the commotion produced amongst the insect community thus suddenly disclosed to view; what scuttling ensues to gain fresh concealment from the garish light of day. In a somewhat similar manner, after a stream has deserted its temporary bed, in all probability numerous forms of aquatic insect life, attracted by the moisture, are to be found in the sand in which the shingle lies half imbedded. The horny point of the bill of this bird, from its peculiar form, is sufficiently strong to be used for thrusting between and under stones and pebbles.

The flexibility of the upper mandible derived from the long grooves and flattened form (extending to nearly half its length), tends materially to assist the bird in fitting its curved bill close to a stone, and thus aids it in searching or fossicking around or beneath the shingle for its food, while at the same time the closed mandibles would form a tube through which water and insects could be drawn up, as water is sucked up by a syringe. As the flexure of the bill is lateral, the bird is enabled to follow up retreating insects, by making the circuit of a waterworn stone with far greater ease than if it had been furnished with the straight beak of the plover, or the long flexible scoop of the avocet.

The inspection of these specimens must clear away any little cloud of doubt that might remain on the minds of persons unfamiliar with the bird, and convince them that this singular form of bill, so far from being an accidental deformity, is a beautiful provision of Nature, which confers on a plover- like bird the advantage of being able to secure a share of its food from sources whence it would be otherwise unattainable.

specimens, as far as can be ascertained, have been obtained in this country, is remarkable, when it is considered how great an extent of country, formerly almost entirely unknown, has been opened up a.nd explored by enterprising colonists during the last ten years. In March, 1868, Mr. Shaw, of Kanieri, one of the Wardens on the West Coast, presented two specimens to the Canterbury Museum, which were stated to have been obtained whilst feeding. near a deep, slowly-flowing, swampy watercourse, by the River Kanieri, and at no great distance from the township of that name. From having been obtained at -the same time and place, they were supposed to have been a pair, but it appears that no examination was made before the preparation of the skins; they bear a close resemblance to the description in Gould's flandbook to the Birds of Australia of the male Ardettapuda, and are probably both young males. Subsequently, another specimen of a young bird of this species was obtained in one of the swampy creeks that feed the Okarita lagoon, and was forwarded from the Canterbury Museum to Dr. Otto IEnsch, of Bremen.

The following description is taken from the larger of the two specimens in the Canterbury Museum :-Beak long, higher than broad, almost straight, having but a slight curvature towards the point, measuring from gape to tip 2 inches 9 Iines; upper mandible flattened on the top, near the base, slightly channeled, nostrils pierced in the groove, defended with membranous process; legs long, gartered or bare above the tarsal joint for 8 lines; tarsus 2 inches 1 line; three toes in front, each furnished with membranous fringe on the inner side, two outer toes united with narrow web extending to first joint; middle toe with claw 2 inches 3 lines; middle claw toothed on the inner side; one toe behind, directed inwards, more robust than those in front, with curved produced claw; toe measuring; with claw, 1 inch 4 lines, of which claw measures 6 lines; wings slightly concave, 6 inches 2 lines, first feather rather shorter than second and third, which are the longest in the wing; total length from tip of beak to extremity of tail 14 inches; under part of lower mandible, sides of bill palish yellow, almost white; edge of mandibles brown; culmen almost black; top of the head greenish black; outer edge shot with bluish black, with a few brown feathers receding from forehead; feathers on the throat and lower part of the neck pale buff with brown streaks; side of neck deep chestnut brown, a narrow stripe of the same colour over the eye; scapularies and back dark brown; wing coverts b&y brown, with deep chestnut on the shoulder, a few of the feathers striped down the shaft with black; edge of the wings coloured with rich brown shaded; primaries dull black; thighs pale buff with streaks of da.rk brown, darkest behind; tail greenish black.

It is stated that the Little Bittern is so quiet in its habits that it will remain still when approached, so that it will apparently almost suEer itself to be taken by the hand. The birds just described were taken alive, it has been

said, without any very great difficulty; after which they were turned loose amongst the fowls in a poultry-yard. They were found dead shortly afterwards, it is alleged, from exposure to the keen frosty night air, being deprived of the accustòmed protection afforded by the thickly-growing sedgy vegetation of their swampy habitat. They had been observed standing motionless on a bare stem or stalk, from which they overlooked the water.

From the description given of our bird, it will be observed how much it differs in the general coloration of its plumage from its antipodean representative (Botaurus minutus), which has the top of the head, shoulders, primaries, and tail bluish black, whilst the rest of its plumage is buff, except the front part of the neck and chin, which are whitish, as is also the vent; the size must be about the same, as we have noted measurements of specimens which are less than those of our Bittern, as well as some which exceed them; both have the middle claw toothed on the inside; irides of B. minutus are said to be yellow; the fact that the feathers on the tibiæ are said to reach the tarsal joints, points out pretty clearly that the New Zealand wader is the more aquatic of the two species.

Having been entrusted by Dr. Hector with a copy of the photograph and the description of Mr. Purdie's bird (which he proposes to name provisionally, Ardeola Novœ ZelandiE) for comparison with the Little Bitterns preserved in the ornithological collection in the Canterbury Museum, after careful examination I am unable to discover any material difference between them and the specimen from Otago. In Mr. Purdie's description, the under parts and thighs are described as brown with greyish white margins, and the photograph exhibits the hind claw rather more produced, but there can be no doubt, I think, that these birds are of identically the same species. Mr. Purdie notes the legs and bill of his bird as yellowish green, eyes rufous brown.

October, 1870.—The Canterbury Museum received two fine specimens from Westland, lighter in colour, without the rich deep chestnut markings on the side of the neck, etc., which are conspicuous on the birds obtained in 1868; this may be the distinction of the sexes; no information on that point accompanied the skins; or it may be the difference of plumage between the seasons of spring and autumn.

Any information respecting the habits of the Little Bittern would be exceedingly interesting; judging from the natural features of the localities whence the Westland specimens were procured, it would appear to live on the sedgy margins of deep swampy pools or creeks.

Mr. Docherty, who preserved the skins now in the Christchurch Museum, furnished the following Notes, descriptive of where they were obtained :— “They are to be found on the salt-water lagoons on the sea shore, always hugging the timbered side of the same; I have seen them in two positions, viz., standing on the bank of the lagoon, with their heads bent forward, studiously watching the water; at other times I have seen them standing

bill was well developed, showing on the sides, near the end of the upper man- dible, the peculiar membranous appendage of a darker colour than the rest of the bill, but were unable to discern the presence of lamillæ; the caudal down was produced to a marked degree.

When hatched, the young are large compared with those of Fuligula Novœ Zelandiœ, measuring 7 inches in total length, of this nearly one-third is contributed by the tail; bill from gape 9 lines.

Bill horn colour, lightest on the lower mandible, unguis rosy at the point; membranous appendage slaty black, well overlapping the lower mandible, furnished with lamellæ along its basal half, which work against the finely serrated sides of the compressed basal half of the lower mandible; upper surface dull green, brightest on the back; over and behind the eye irregular streak of white; under surface white; wings and upper part of thighs brownish; tail green above, at each side a patch of chestnut; under surface of the tail chestnut, covered with thick down, longest on the back; legs and feet yellowish flesh colour.

As will be seen from the above description, the Mountain or Blue Duck in its earliest stages of growth is very prettily marked, with its green and white down, relieved by patches of chestnut; it differs much from the young of any other native species of Anatidœ with which we are acquainted; the tail is much produced, in swimming it is carried well above the water. When the parent birds have their brood in charge, they certainly exhibit much less craft as well as energy for the protection of their offspring than any other duck; with them there is little, if any, attempt at concealment of the young, none of the ruses are made use of, which, with the paradise ducks, often prove so successful in misleading their enemies; usually, they simply drop down the rapid, trusting apparently for escape to the turbulence of the stream—an asylum safe enough from most, if not all, indigenous persecutors, but not from the settler's dog; they seem loth to land, and if compelled to do so, their progress is not very rapid, in fact, they impress one with an idea of their helplessness. The duck marches in front, with her low wailing call, the small brood follow, whilst the drake protects the rear, or rather offers himself as the first victim to the pursuer.

For the last two years we have seen fewer Mountain Ducks than usual; if anything can save them from utter extermination it will be the remoteness of their haunts. Protective enactments have doubtless proved beneficial in restraining the unscrupulous in many cases, but such laws would probably be better observed if better known, for when one observes a string of ducks hanging up at a house in December, it must surely arise from ignorance of our legislative enactments that such an outward and visible sign of their infringement is made patent. In winter time they congregate in flocks of moderate numbers.

its progress whilst soaring or wheeling aloft, one might imagine it to be trying “great circle sailing;” it approaches and glides to its perch with sweeping curves rather than by a direct course; its appearance is the signal for alarm amongst all poultry within reasonable distance, yet it is harmless and peaceable except where fish are to be found. After much occupation on or in the water, it has a knack of drying its feathers in a peculiar manner, which gives it a most grotesque appearance; it stands, say on a sunlit rock, stretching out its quivering wings horizontally, till it really looks not at all unlike the old-fashioned sign of the “spread eagle.”

Its activity in the pursuit of its finny prey is indeed remarkable, and, as is well known, in some countries led to the taming of the bird for the purpose of rendering this dexterity of service to man; one of the old offices in the royal household of England was that of Master of the Cormorants.

Its breeding station sometimes is shared by others of the species, whose nests are built in pretty close proximity; sticks, partially decayed leaves of Phormium, and coarse grasses, furnish the materials of these structures, which yield from the accumulated filth, a powerful and disagreeable odour. The eggs, at most four in number, are long ovoiconical in shape; they are greenish white, covered with chalky incrustations; they measure 2 inches 5 lines in length, and 1 inch 6 lines in breadth. The young birds remain in the nest till they have attained a considerable size.

In the neighbourhood of Christchurch, not very far from the sea, is, or rather was, a swamp of considerable extent, which was selected some years since as a breeding station by certain species of our numerous family of the Graculidœ. Numbers of birds were attracted to the spot; a visit to this nursery ground showed them in multitudes, arriving, departing, or stationed in quaint attitudes about the huge tufty heads of the pendant-leaved Carex. It was noticeable that the tops of the Maori-heads were almost invariably occupied by the large coarsely-built homes of G. carbo; beneath, against the dark tufted root-stems, the less ambitious little river shags reared their offspring. Unsavoury odours, of a most penetrating kind, pervaded this colony and its neighbourhood, from the great accumulation of slimy exuviæ; one could conceive that it was possible for the sea-washed rock to be changed into the guano island—it would be simply a sum in multiplication worked out by Time. Without staying to moralize on the fact that the same great Chemist transmuted the poison stench of one age into a commercial item which has afforded employment to thousands of human beings in another, we may mention that our little colony was not without its value, outside of its purpose for bird incubation.

As the explorer somewhat carefully picked his way, his advancing footsteps shaking the trembling morass, eels of the largest size disturbed were observed threading the watery mazes of the quaking bog, their bulk and condition

the general form of its body, the Grebe is unable to raise itself upon the former unless the body be in great measure supported by water.

The eggs are usually three in number, and are somewhat peculiar in form, having an apparent thickening in the middle and tapering towards both ends. When first laid they are of a chalky and slightly greenish hue, but soon become completely discolored. Whether this discoloration is solely due to contact with the materials of the nest, or whether the birds themselves, under the influence of some instinctive habit, contribute towards it, I am not prepared to say.

It has been suggested by observers that the discoloration of the eggs of some of the water birds is due, in part at least, to voluntary action of the parent birds. In this connection the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, a very close observer, tells us in reference to the eggs of Podiceps minor, that “when first extruded they are perfectly white, but seldom remain long so, gradually becoming of a stale blood-stain hue, from which there are gradations to a more or less dirt-bedabbled white, all eventually becoming of one dirty muddy red- brown;” and he enquires, “to what cause is this coloring due? is it intentional on the part of the bird, or is it accidental?” He does not believe that the colour “is, in any case, due to mud from the feet of the bird, nor that it is altogether derived from the weeds with which the eggs are usually covered during the absence of the birds from the nest;” for he mentions that he met with a nest of Podiceps minor, with a single egg in it, evidently very recently laid, uncovered as it lay in the nest, but which was stained of a dull mottled dirt colour all over. He worked at it with water and his fingers, and after much labour brought it back to a dirty mottled white, but he says, “that had he expended one-tenth part of the same labour upon a soiled hen's egg, he would have succeeded in restoring its original whiteness.” But this point is one which I merely suggest here for the consideration of future observers, having formed no absolute opinion of my own upon it. I am, however, inclined to think against any intentional action on the part of the bird in producing the discoloration of the egg, for I believe that were such a discoloration necessary for the protection of a species having so wide a range, it would be exhibited by the egg itself immediately upon its extrusion, as in the case of gulls and other birds which form slight open nests in exposed situations, in which cases the eggs (and even the young birds proceeding from them), are so much assimilated in general colour to the ground on which they are deposited, as not to be detected without close search.

Both the male and female Grebe assist in the labour of incubation, although I believe that the chief part of this task devolves upon the female, and that she is only relieved by her partner for the purpose of enabling her to feed. Before the actual work of incubation commences, the eggs are usually covered with pond weed during the absence of the birds from the nest, but afterwards

the nest is seldom, if ever, left by both birds, except under unusual circumstances.

The New Zealand bird, as might be expected from its more recent contact with civilized man, is far less shy than the European one, and easily discriminates between persons who may be dangerous, and those who are not. The children of my manager frequently visit the nests during the progress of incubation, and as they have never injured the nests or eggs, or interfered mischievously with the birds themselves, they are allowed to approach quite close without the latter thinking it necessary to quit the nest. When they do so, they glide into the water with a quick but stealthy motion, diving at once, and rising at a considerable distance from the nest.

The eggs do not appear to suffer from immersion in water, even for a considerable time, for on one occasion, three eggs which by some means had been thrown out of a nest, and had sunk below it to a depth of several feet, and which must have been immersed in the water for twenty-four hours at least, were replaced by one of the children, and the parent birds having sat upon them, two out of the three produced chicks.

When the water of the lake is rising, in consequence of heavy rain, the birds are seen busily engaged in procuring material and building up the nest so as to raise the eggs above the reach of the flood. This added material is afterwards spread out after the water subsides; but on some rare occasions the rise of the lake has been so great and so rapid, that the birds having been unable to meet it, the eggs have become addled. In such case no chicks have been produced that season.

The young birds are of a greyish green colour, striped with black, and, particularly when of small size, are not easily detected whilst floating on the water. They take to the water immediately after being excluded from the egg, and both parents exhibit the greatest solicitude in tending and feeding them. When fatigued, they are carried on the backs of the old birds, taking their station immediately behind the insertion of the wings, for which purpose the parent bird immerses itself deeper than usual in the water.

Mr. Yarrell, in his description of the Crested Grebe of Europe, says,— “The parent birds are very careful of their young, taking them down with them for security under their wings when they dive.” This is certainly not the case with the New Zealand birds, for I have frequently observed the parent birds, both when engaged undisturbed in feeding the young ones, and when pursued by a boat for the express purpose of noting their habits. In no instance did I see the young one being taken down by the parent when diving. It dives itself with great ease, and travels a considerable distance under water. From its inconspicuous colour and small size it easily eludes observation, more particularly if there be the slightest ripple on the water, and this is quite sufficient protection for it. When engaged in feeding their young, each

with stiff hairs; antennæ short, springing laterally from peculiar, almost club-shaped, processes, placed in oval cavities immediately above the mouth; these processes are destitute of hairs, and are attached to the forehead by separate pivot joints, independent of those upon which the antennæ turn; thorax black, and generally hairy, with a few stiff longish hairs scattered over the surface; abdomen deep metallic blue, with stiff hairs symmetrically set all over it; the wings at the point of attachment have a yellowish hue, and the halteres are yellow; legs black, and covered with stiff hairs; fourth joint of the tarsus bilobed; terminal joint bearing two claws at the tip, with a smaller spurious claw between them, projecting beyond the outer margin of the pulvilli, which, between the larger claws, are hollowed into a semicircle. Length 7 lines, by 4 lines.

From this description, it will at once be seen that this fly differs materially from that described by Dieffenbach, in his short account of the natural history of these Islands, as the “Blue-bottle-fly,” and that it is not the same as that which is described by Mr. Taylor in Te Ika a Maui, under the name of “Musca (sarcophaga) lœmica, or Rango of the natives.” There is a blue fly in these Islands which is viviparous, but which is much smaller than that known as the common Blue-bottle. It appears, moreover, to be confined to warm localities, and is seldom seen except during the summer and autumn months. As the result of enquiries amongst the natives (who are in general very observant of facts in natural history), I was at one time induced to believe that the Blue-bottle-fly (the subject of these notes) was not indigenous. They stated that this fly, with the common house-fly and certain flies which more particularly infest imported European animals, were all brought to the Islands by trading vessels from Australia, but, although I fully believe this in regard to several of these insects, I doubt it as regards the Blue-bottle-fly, for reasons which will be manifest from these notes.

For example, I may state (and this fact will be confirmed by every bush traveller and explorer in these Islands) that there is scarcely an attainable locality in which it is not to be found. I, myself, have seen it in the midst of dense forests, never before trodden by the foot of man, far removed from every habitation, whether native or European, and to which no cattle could ever have had access; in river courses, presenting for miles a mere expanse of naked sand and shingle; and, stranger still, upon the very summits of mountains composed of bare rock, and rising above the line of perpetual snow. In fact, within a few minutes after the explorer has sat down to rest, wherever the situation may be and whatever the season of the year, he is sure, if the weather be dry, to hear the hum of these busy active creatures as they gather around him. As an illustration of how fully they are looked for, I extract the following passage from Louper's account of the late Mr. Whitcombe's journey to the West Coast:—“We soon reached a dry spot, opened our swags, and laid

everything in the sun, and then lay down ourselves. We could not see any blow-flies about, of which there are so many in all parts of the country. I soon fell asleep; I think Mr. Whitcombe did the same, but he awoke first, looked at his watch, and said we had been resting for an hour and a half, that we must pack up, and get on our way. I quickly set to work to tie up my swag, but the blow-flies had found us out, and had covered everything with their eggs. His opossum rug was the worst; we cleaned everything as well as we could, packed them up, and descended once more among the spray.”

The situation referred to in the above extract was some few miles beyond the Rakaia saddle, on the western side, and in the very heart of the Southern Alps, a locality remote from all human habitations, and probably never before visited by man.

The circumstance above referred to indicates that the sense of smell in these creatures, or at least “that power which communicates analogous intimations to the sensorium,” is highly developed, for it has been observed that the distance from which they collect is often very great indeed. Whether the peculiar club-shaped processes upon which the antennæ are fixed are organs of smell, is a point upon which I am not able to offer any positive opinion, though, from the fact that many distinguished writers on insect structure have assigned their olfactory perceptions to various appendages of the head, and from the apparent connection of the antennæ with these perceptions, I am led to conjecture that the organs in question have some important relation with that sense. This is a point, however, which I must leave to be determined by those who are better acquainted with insect anatomy and physiology.

In connection with the numbers and very general distribution of the fly in question, it has often been matter of wonder upon what it feeds, and how it is propagated in many of the localities in which it abounds. For example, in the recesses of the forests and upon the summits of alpine mountains the amount of animal life of any kind, and consequently of decomposing animal matter, is extremely small, and if we except decaying vegetable matter in the forests, there is nothing to be seen which is even apparently capable of affording food to its larvæ. I may state, too, that although I often searched most diligently, I never found any of the larvæ in such situations. So completely are these points involved in mystery to me, that I am unable even to hazard a conjecture on the subject. In England, the annoyance suffered by sheep from the attacks of the flesh-fly is matter of notoriety, and I believe it has been asserted, that unless constant attention were paid to these animals when labouring under diarrhœa, or when suffering from wounds, they would soon be devoured by its insatiable larvæ.

New, it is somewhat marvellous, and certainly providential, that none of the Flesh-flies of these Islands (of which there are several species) are known to annoy the living sheep, except when “cast,” that is, when lying upon its back

or side, unable to rise. In such circumstances the common Blue-bottle at once attacks it, depositing its ova upon every part of the animal's body, and, no doubt, many sheep are thus annually destroyed; but, whilst the sheep is standing, or lying in its ordinary posture, it is apparently perfectly safe. Not so, however, with the shorn fleece, for no sooner has this been removed from the sheep's back than it is attacked; so with the skin or the meat of the dead animal, but except in the case above mentioned the living animal is never molested. This will appear the more singular when we find that the disease called “scab” is prevalent amongst the flocks in many parts of the Islands, and that sheep infected with this disease often remain undressed for weeks after the pustules have begun to discharge. But for this immunity from attack, there is no doubt that sheep farmers would annually suffer very severe losses. Whether this immunity will continue when sheep are systematically kept upon artificial pastures, has yet to be determined.

As an instance of an apparent perversion of the natutal instincts of this oreature, I may mention that it will, under certain circumstances, deposit its ova upon any woollen fabric, even of the finest texture; but it only attacks such articles when lying on the ground or rolled up in a bundle, and so forth. If fairly hung from a line, or spread over a bush, they are perfectly safe. I have often seen hundreds of these flies sitting upon the surface of a blanket thus suspended, without depositing a single egg, whilst below, on one incautiously spread upon the ground by some newly-arrived emigrant, I have seen the ova in masses many inches deep, and covering several square feet, the blanket itself being actually stiffened from the numbers deposited upon it. I once saw one of these flies most diligently attaching its ova to the dry surface of a glass bottle, taken, however, from saddle-bags which had recently been in contact with the sweating side of a horse.

It is remarkable, too, that in flight this insect is not known to rise more than six or seven feet from the surface of the ground. So well ascertained is this fact, that upon the sheep and cattle stations in the Middle Island the meat used for food is usually hung in the open air, at a height of nine or ten feet from the ground, and is there deemed to be quite safe from attack, whilst if kept below six or seven feet it is at once blown.

It has been stated, too, that the number of these flies is found to diminish whenever the common house-fly appears, and a squatter observing this, and anxious to mitigate the annoyance they caused, once attempted to convey some house-flies from Christchurch to his station on the hills. He succeeded in carrying them as far as an accommodation house, at the end of his first day's journey, but having unthinkingly let them out “to feed,” was unable (as my informant stated) to catch them again. I have not heard whether the attempt was repeated, but its failure in the first instance is to be regretted, as the result of so direct an experiment would have been instructive.

than those of the latter), contain an abundance of Eels of excellent quality. Nor is there any difference whatsoever in the character of the rocks over which these several rivers flow; the mountains are generally composed of crystalline sandstones, the main rivers running with their strike, whilst the tributaries usually cut through them nearly at right angles. Nor can the absence of these fish be accounted for by want of appropriate food, for Lake Guyon and all the smaller and less rapid streams abound in various species of Galaxias, and in other forms of animal life.

We are, therefore, driven to conclude, either that migration to the sea is essential to the Eel of this country, and that some physical obstacle exists which prevents its return to the head waters of the river in question; or that it has been introduced into the river below the rapids (where it is abundant) since the formation of some physical obstacle to its further ascent.

If the absence of the fish in the upper parts of the river is to be attributed to the existence of a physical obstacle to its ascent, then the line of rapids to which I have referred as occurring some thirty miles below its source must be that obstacle. At this point the valley is very narrow, and the river which there contains a great body of water, has cut a channel nearly forty feet deep and about half a mile in length, through solid rock, along which it flows with great force. Judging, too, from the presence of numerous twirls and whirlpools, the bottom of these rapids appears to be rocky and uneven, whilst the rock on the sides, and, doubtless on the bottom also, has been highly polished by the attrition of the silt brought down during floods.

But it may be urged that Eels are well known to breed freely in Europe in fresh water habitats, without attempting to seek the sea, and that during the winter season they manage there to protect themselves from the increased rigour of the temperature by burying themselves in mud, or by hiding in holes in the banks of the rivers and ponds. Mr. Yarrell, indeed, expressly cites the Mole, the Wey, and the Longford rivers, and various ponds, as localities in which the Eel is found to breed freely, but from which it does not attempt to reach the sea; and we may be asked why should not the Eels of this country follow the same habit in the Upper Waiau, assuming that the rapids referred to prevent their ascent of the river? The coldness of the water during the winter season would not be sufficient to account for their absence, for Mr. Yarrell has shown that they are able to endure, without injury, a very rigorous temperature, and certainly the winter season of the district in question is not so inclement as that of many parts of England.

We are, therefore, driven back upon the two alternatives mentioned in the earlier part of these observations, and of these two I am disposed to rely upon the first, namely, that while migration to the sea is essential to the Eels of this country, a time arrived at which, although descent was practicable,

anxiously looked for) could be detected, but upon a careful dissection, and previous to maceration, the tooth (Plate XVII., fig. 3b) now before the Society was found; its twin brother still remains in its obscurity on the right ramus of the lower jaw.

From the appearance of the teeth, I am inclined to think that they never cut or appear above the gum, and the scientific enquirer will naturally ask of what use could they be to the animal? This is truly a profound question, and carries us into the mysteries of types and first causes. The tooth, it will be observed, is of the form of a compressed cone; the apex is finely pointed (not worn), and was found playing in a cavity, resembling a socket, in the jaw. The tooth is still covered to within about the eighth of an inch with an investure of cartilaginous tissue, but as I intend to carry out my investigation of not only this remarkable tooth, but also those of other Cetaceans, including the teeth of the sperm whale, I shall close my present remarks by stating, that from careful examination of the specimens which came under my notice, the food on which these animals subsist is the cuttle-fish; and these concealed teeth, although not answering the purpose of securing, killing, or grinding, would yet give a severe pinch to such soft-bodied animals.

I subjoin tables of weights and measurements so far as could be procured:—

Produce of fine sperm oil, about 240 gallons; spermaceti, a considerable quantity on the upper surface of the face.

[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, June 25, 1870.]

Since reading the preceding notice, I have made a section of the left tooth, as nearly in its axis as the curves of the tooth would allow, and without injuring the apex. It will be observed from this section that there is no cavity for lodging a pulp; it is composed of three distinct substances, well defined, not only by difference in colour but in organization, but just of sufficient hardness to take a fine polish; the centre part, forming much the greater proportion of the tooth, exhibits a homogeneous mass of fibres edged with a series of imbricated laminæ, more especially towards the apex, and these are covered with a white dense osseous tissue, precisely similar to the ivory or bone of the tooth of the sperm whale, of which I also have placed on the table a fine section. Lastly, enamelling the tooth from the base to within an eighth part of an inch of the apex, we have an osseous layer, not only holding the place of the enamel in other teeth, but presenting its peculiar and characteristic organization; the section, at the same time, shows the last mentioned tissue to be entirely covered by a substance similar to cartilage, as if it was in a state of growth by the deposit of enamelling matter.

The muscles chiefly performing the process of mastication are comparatively small, and would scarcely serve the purpose of seizing, killing, and grinding any resisting prey.

It is sufficiently interesting to remark that the Delphinidœ are characterized by the great number of teeth, some of them possessing as many as two hundred, whilst the Ziphidœ, the skeleton of which closely resembles the dolphin, may

On placing in the Museum the skeleton of a species of fish familiarly known to the practical fisherman as the Kelp-fish, I shall confine my observations to the remarkable circumstance of the skeleton presenting a bright or bluish green colour, which is so permanent as to resist the process of prolonged maceration and subsequent bleaching, and even boiling. The question arises, whether the food is the cause of this. Careful dissection and enquiry into the habitat, and consequently feeding ground, has, I presume to think, at least to a great extent determined this.

On the second day of August last (1870), a large quantity of the Kelp-fish were offered for sale in and about Wellington, and although by no means prepossessing in external appearance, being of a dingy black colour and covered with a slimy mucus, a few were purchased. My first enquiry was, when, where, and how they were captured. I found that the fish frequent Cook's Strait, more especially off and around the Island of Mana; they are very rarely taken with a bait, but are fished for by means of a net in the form of a bag with a hoop round the mouth, and secured with a rope to a branch of the kelp, which grows of vast dimensions around the Island of Mana. The net is set amongst the kelp, where the rise and fall of the tide produces a kind of free run, which the fishermen avail themselves of in setting their net, and upon returning they find it full of the fish, of all sizes. The kelp in this locality may be viewed as a vast submerged forest, growing from stems two or more feet in circumference, fixed to the bottom of the sea, and is often used by the Cook's Strait fishermen and captains of small coasting vessels to secure their crafts to in a gale of wind. The fish, I have said, are covered with a slimy mucus, like that of the eel, and gives a feeling to the hand similar to that of the kelp, so that the movements of the fish (provided, as it is, with ample fins) must bear a strong resemblance in its gliding amongst the branches of the submarine forest to that of the Athene Novce Zelandice, in his nightly silent flight amongst the surpassingly beautiful terrestrial forest.

Ovaria resembling in size and number that of the trout. The ova were vascular, and many floating free, indicating that the fish were spawning, and consequently ought to be in the very best condition.

As an accurate drawing of the external appearance of the fish has been made by Mr. Buchanan (see Plate XVIII., fig. 2), I shall merely add a few notes on the anatomy.

Stomach, a simple sac; diameter 1 ½ inches, diminishing in calibre gradually to 6 lines, (no pancreatic cœca); tunics of the stomach thin, distended, with a green semi-fluid mass; peritoneal tunic bright silvery. Intestine 3 feet 4 inches in length. Liver pale yellow colour, friable, no oil; composed of four irregularly-shaped lobes; gall-bladder not observed. Spleen comparatively small, dark, like a clot of blood. Kidneys placed near the head, extending along the spine for about 4 ½ inches; concealed by the swimming bladder,

5 inches long, attached to the transverse processes; the swimming bladder was very fully distended; the tunics strong opaque.

Food, a species of zoophyte, or animal-plant of naturalists.

The dentition is very peculiar, more especially the pharyngeal; the upper and lower pharyngeal bones are of a deep green colour, and present together a complete system of minutely serrated edges, and being acted upon by powerful muscles, typify all the forms of straight and circular saws at present in use in the most completely furnished saw mills.

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one feeble row on upper jaw. Tongue short, feebly armed. Maxillary not extending beyond eye. Snout conical, and receiving the lower jaw, which is shorter. Dorsal fin over the ventral, and in advance of the vent. Abdominal cavity black. Intestine folded, and 3 ½ times the length of the abdomen. Stomach thin and membranous. Shiny patch on the cheek, but no silvery line on the side.

These characters at once distinguish this fish from either of the preceding species. It is possible that difference of growth might in them give rise to their distinguishing features, but this fish clearly differs in the dentition, form of mouth and intestine, which indicate a different kind of food, and also in the number of rays and position of the dorsal fin. The specimens I have obtained of this fish present a great deal of variety, but only in the colouring, which varies from a general silvery hue, slightly brown on the back, to a rich red- brown on the back speckled with grey, and a rich yellow, almost golden, tinge on the belly.

Plate XIX., fig. 2, is a full-size drawing of a specimen obtained for me by Mr. Travers, from the Maitai River, Nelson, and with which he furnished the following notes:—

“These fish appear at the mouth of the Maitai River usually in the early part of October, evidently from the sea; at what period they return to the sea I am unable to say.

“The migration beyond the influence of the tide does not take place immediately after the fish leaves the sea, for they evidently ascend and descend daily as far as the tide-way is felt, ascending with the flood and descending with the ebb, probably the better to prepare for their continuance in purely fresh water during the period of spawning. They occur in considerable shoals, and appear at first to prefer the shallower and slower-flowing parts of the river, basking in the sun on the shingle beds. They rise to various kinds of fly and moth, and are taken also with the worm as a bait. As they descend the river, they change colour from a dull silver grey below to a rich brown, assimilating, in this respect, to the colour of the river-bed. In the shoals the fish are of various sizes, from nine and ten inches to five and six in length.”

Plate XVIII., figs. 4a and 4b, is the life-size drawing of the head of a specimen ^*. that was obtained in the Hutt River, in January, 1870, at which season they were ascending from the sea in immense shoals, the females being gravid and swollen to enormous size.

They are found in most of the streams in the colony, and are highly esteemed as food, but have not the flavour of the true Trout.

The following table shows the actual dimensions of average full-sized

I shall give another example, which shows that it sometimes requires a little observation to know our insect friends from our insect foes. One year, when the hop-aphis was very destructive in Kent, the Kentish folks noticed great numbers of lady-bird beetles on the hops, so they immediately concluded that they were the origin, or at least, partially the cause of the evil, and destroyed numbers of them. This was, however, far from being correct, for the lady-birds live on the real culprits, the aphides. I mention this fact because the aphis is already a nuisance here, and because there is also a lady-bird which I have seen on two different occasions in the act of sucking a juicy aphis. This pretty little lady-bird is the only representative of the Coccinellida I have observed in Otago, and it seems to be widely distributed over the province. It is little more than half the size of the commonest British variety (Coccinella septem punctata), is coloured black, and has twelve orange spots on the elytræ, and two on the thorax.

We have many other insects which are injurious, though their effects may not be so apparent, or so widely spread, as is the damage caused by those I have just mentioned. Thus, we have beetles which are destructive to the timber, and others which injure the foliage of our trees. Indeed, I have seen some willow trees almost completely denuded of their leaves by a little brilliant green beetle. The grasshopper, too, which in some parts of the province swarms in countless numbers, must devour a large quantity of valuable grass.

There are also several insects of very strange appearance to be found in Otago. One of these is the “walking-stick” of the colonists, which is an apterous insect, belonging to the order Orthoptera, and the tribe Phasiuma. It derives its name from its extraordinary resemblance to a twig; it is usually about an inch and a half long, but one specimen which I have seen was nearly six inches in length; again, the pupa of the native cicada, or, as it is commonly called, the singing locust, presents a very remarkable appearance. It is found in the ground, is active, and in form greatly resembles the perfect insect, only it is without wings, and is provided with a pair of huge claws like those of a lobster, which give it an exceedingly ferocious appearance; but whether they are used for carnivorous purposes or only for cutting the roots of plants I do not know. The pupa works its way out of the ground before the cicada bursts forth, and the empty cases may frequently be observed sticking to a tree or post. The sharp chirruping noise made by the perfect insects must be familiar to all. The Otago cicada has a peculiarity which is noticed in the variety common in the south of Europe by an old Greek poet, and which is, that these loquacious gentlemen “all have voiceless wives.”

I have never been able to meet with a classified list of New Zealand insects, and whether or not such a thing exists I am unable to ascertain. If a list has ever been published, I have no doubt of its being a very imperfect one. Hochstetter mentions that there are 215 genera, including 265 species,

of insects found in New Zealand, but I am sure that must be very much under the number, because he puts the Lepidoptera down at fifty-five, and I feel certain that that order has many more species.

There are sixty-six species of British butterflies, while the moths number nearly two thousand. I have myself observed in Otago alone, four or five species of butterflies, and more than twenty species of moths, but as to the numbers I have captured I cannot speak positively, for my entire collection has unfortunately been recently completely destroyed.

Of the butterflies, the most striking, and one of the commonest, is a representative of the Vanessidi. This butterfly is almost an exact facsimile of the English Atalanta, or red admiral, which it resembles both in the deep black grounding and brilliant scarlet bands of the upper side, as well as in the beautiful pencilled tracery of browns and greys underneath. It is the earliest of our butterflies; I have observed an early specimen flitting about among the spring flowers on a bright day towards the end of August or beginning of September. On catching any of these, the wings generally present a very torn and tarnished appearance, so that I have little doubt they hybernate. There are probably two broods of them in each year—one leaving the chrysalis about midsummer, and the other in the auttumn. I do not know upon what the larvæ of this butterfly feed, nor, indeed, do I know the food of the larvæ of any of the New Zealand Lepidoptera, for I have never reared them; but I have never seen any caterpillars which at all resemble those of the same family found in Britain.

The genus Pieris, which includes some of the commonest British species, is, so far as I know, without a single New Zealand representative. Another butterfly common in the neighbourhood of Dunedin is one which, I think, belongs to the Satiridi, some members of which family it greatly resembles on the upper side, though the under side has silvery markings, which in England are peculiar to the Argynnidi. I am, however, almost certain that there is a Fritillary to be found in Otago; for one day, in the interior of the province, I saw a butterfly, which, both by its general appearance and style of flight, led me to believe that it must be referred to that genus. Some of the species of these butterflies are so exceedingly local in their habits that we might have several forms, and yet they might not be discovered for a long time, even if there were many collectors.

There is another very pretty little butterfly which is not uncommon; it bears a strong resemblance to the small copper Chrysophanus phlœas of Britain, though it is rather larger. The genus Polyommatus has one, if not two, species; one resembles the P. Artaxerxes, with a tinge of blue, and the other has more blue, but whether these are distinct species or merely varieties, I cannot decide, even possibly it is only the difference of the sexes. These lively little butterflies are widely spread over the open grass lands, and numbers of them

may be seen during the summer, dancing with their peculiar jerky flight over plats of short grass by creek sides and in similar situations. I have now mentioned all the butterflies which I know of existing in Otago; they are few in number, but there must be several other species to be met with if they were to be searched for.

Of the moths of Otago, the commonest is a day-flier, which has black wings with white spots, the abdomen annulated with orange, and the antennæ pectinated. This moth is frequently mistaken for a butterfly. This, however, it is not, but a true moth, belonging to the family Chelonidœ. It is common all summer, and makes its first appearance in October. There is another representative of this family which I have met with, and which, though not so handsome as some of its British congeners, is one of the most brilliantly coloured New Zealand moths known to me. In appearance it greatly resembles the wood tiger (Nemeophila Plantagenis), is a strong flier, and difficult to capture, though, like the previous one, it also enjoys the sunshine. The larvæ are black hairy caterpillars, which do not seem to be at all particular as to what they eat, for they seem to devour indiscriminately the grass and other small herbage. I have seen them in the interior, in the neighbourhood of Hamilton and Hyde, where, in the early part of the summer of 1866, they were so numerous as to blacken the ground in places, especially where the shorter grass grew, at the sides of tracks or water races. There are probably two broods a year, for the moths from the early brood come out about the end of November and beginning of December. There is another moth common up-country which I have only noticed where spear-grass (Aciphylla Colensoi) abounded; it is remarkable more for its size than its beauty, for it is all of a light fawn colour. It is, however, the largest of the Otago moths I have seen, yet not very large, being only three inches across the wings. Whether the larvæ feed on the spear-grass, or on some plant which grows in the same places, I know not.

The Geometrina are pretty well represented. There is one insect in this family which is very common, and which is rather handsome though its colours are sombre, for its markings are pretty, and it is much larger than the majority of the moths of this group. It may be found by searching during the day in the corners of out-houses and in other dark places.

Our commonest moth in Otago is one belonging to the Nocturna, as it may be caught almost any summer night in great numbers by exhibiting a light. There may be, I think, two or three kinds of this moth, for I have seen specimens bearing a great family likeness, and yet showing great diversity in their markings; yet even among those I had in my possession, there were some specimens which I felt sure belonged to the same species, and yet the markings varied considerably.

The last moth I shall refer to is one belonging to the Hepialidœ, which

hills, the epiphytic form of Griselinia lucida, which was unusually abundant, had a remarkable effect, from the contrast of its bold glossy foliage with that of the rimu, tawa, or rata, upon which it chanced to be growing. It is but rarely that the genera Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes are seen, as they appear to be in these patches of forest; only a few of the commoner forms were observed, and those only in small quantity.

On the sand hills about Peringa and Whakawa, Zoysia pungens, a small growing native grass is abundant, forming a compact turf, and affording a large supply of succulent herbage to horses and cattle. Although this grass occurs in many localities, from the North Cape southwards, it is rarely found in so great abundance. Astelia Banksii occurs on the cliffs, evincing its decided preference for a maritime habitat. Crantzia, Salicornia, Mesembryanthemum, and other littoral plants occur here in profusion.

Ascending the river from Port Waikato, Avicennia officinalis and Plagianthus divaricatus are found for a short distance, but the extensive swamps and low lands which stretch to the vicinity of Tuakau, present but little of interest, except occasionally to the flax manufacturer; occasionally extensive patches of kahikatea are seen, and, on a large island opposite Mercer, are some fine specimens of the tarairi (Nesodaphne Tarairi, Hook. f.), the finest I saw in the Waikato. This handsome tree appears to attain its southern limit between Mercer and Rangiriri, thus exhibiting a very restricted range when compared with the tawa (Nesodaphne Tawa, Hook. f.), the only other member of the genus, and which, according to Buchanan, is found in the Province of Marlborough.

At Kohe-kohe, above Mere-mere, a solitary ngaio (Myoporum lœtum), evidently planted, is pointed out by the Maoris as a “pakeha” tree; two stunted specimens were observed on abandoned native cultivations at Rangiriri. In the Waikato it appears to be confined to the coast, and flourishes only in situations exposed to the sea breeze. The puriri (Vitex littoralis) is not observed by the river side further south than about three miles above Meremere, although it is met with in several localities between the river and the coast; it is however decidedly rare in the Upper Waikato.

In places where the current is not too swift, a dense growth of Typha latifolia, Scirpus lacustris, and S. maritimus, is found at the foot of the bank and in the adjacent marshes; in shallow places in the river, Myriophyllum variœfolium, an undescribed Potamogeton allied to P. zosterœfolius, Schum., and a species with floating as well as submerged leaves, allied to P. natans and P. heterophyllus, are abundant. Nitella Hookeri often forms large patches, and in shallow gravelly places, Zannichellia palustris is occasionally met with; this appears to be a rare plant in the colony, having been previously collected on the east coast of the North Island only. The paucity of fluviatile plants in the Waikato is remarkable, although some allowance must be made

for the advanced period of the season at which these observations were made.

Several feeders empty themselves into the Waikato, more especially on its western bank; most of these are of tortuous course, running for many miles among the hills. A description of the chief features of the Opuatia Creek, which was explored for twenty-five miles from its mouth, may be taken as a general representation of those of other creeks. The first five or six miles passes through extensive raupo swamps, occasionally relieved by large patches of New Zealand flax and various sedges; on the margins of quiet reaches, Riccia fluitans, previously known as a New Zealand plant only in deep water in the Wairarapa Valley, is occasionally found, but is by no means common. Large kahikatea swamps were relieved by a dense undergrowth of various species of Coprosma, which, at this late period of the season, atoned for the absence of flowers by their brilliant show of berries of orange, purple, crimson, white, red, and jet black; the effect being enhanced by the immense panicles of snow-white berries of the ti (Cordyline australis), and, high above all, the bright red fruit of the kahikatea, which were produced in unusual abundance. Asplenium australe, Br., one of the few New Zealand plants which evince a decided geognostic preference, was abundant in marshy woods on the impure limestone through which the stream has forced its way. Alluvial ground along the entire course of the creek is covered with European docks, of so dense a growth that it is difficult to force one's way through them, and the common water-cress (Nasturtium officinale) is abundant; for some fifteen miles, the only fluviatile plants were the Potamogetons before mentioned. In the low woods, Plagianthus betulinus, one of the most ornamental trees in the flora, was common, but except on dry ground had lost most of its leaves. It deserves to be largely used for ornamental planting; in habit it is the best representative we have of the European birch, its foliage closely resembling the var. laciniata of that well known tree.

But the most remarkable feature was the immense abundance, in one or two localities, of a peculiar group of plants for the most part members of widely separated families, but agreeing in the production of minute, usually diœcious, flowers, and so closely similar in foliage, and often in ramification, as to be distinguished only with extreme difficulty in the absence of fruit. Acres were covered with a dense intertwined growth of Panax anomalum, Pennantia corymbosa, Melicytus micranthus, Myrsine divaricata, Coprosma, sps., Epicar- purus microphyllus, Muhlenbeckia complexa, and young states of Elœocarpus Hookerianus;—one of the most curious assemblages of plants similar in external appearance, but widely different in structure, that could possibly be met with.

The young leaves of Panax anomala have hitherto escaped notice; in this locality they were usually trifoliolate, and irregularly lobed and toothed, resembling those of Melicope simplex, but of more irregular form. They

are but rarely developed on old branches and never in connection with fruit.

At Tepakiruna, Geranium sessiliflorum is found in abundance on the pumice deposit by the river; this is probably the northern boundary of this interesting little plant, which had not previously been observed in the North Island. Potentilla anserina, and other plants of interest, were collected here. The open country in the vicinity is clothed with short-growing manuka and fern, largely mixed with an undescribed Schœnus allied to S. pauciflorus, and presents few plants of interest.

Whangape Lake is the habitat of many interesting plants. Asperula perpusilla attains here its northern limit, the usually littoral Chenopodium ambiguum occurs on its banks, Potamogeton pectinatus, only collected elsewhere as a New Zealand plant, near Napier, is abundant in the lake and in the Whangape Creek, as are the undescribed members of the genus already spoken of. Elatine Americana is not unfrequent, Ruppia maritima, usually confined to muddy beaches and salt-water ditches, is common, as is Zannichellia palustris; Scirpus fluitans, L., has not been found elsewhere in New Zealand; a Pilularia, with solitary fronds, is found on the margin of the lake, as well as in deep water, but good specimens have not yet been collected, and the genus has not at present been found elsewhere in the colony. Isoëtes Kirkii, Braunn, originally discovered here, forms a compact turf at the bottom of the lake, whilst charads of several species are abundant,—amongst them Chara fragilis, Desv., var. C. australis, R. Br., and C. gymnopitys, A. Br., are additions to our flora, as is an interesting minute plant, an undescribed Ranunculus of abnormal form, having four sepals and four petals, with spathulate leaves, and which formed matted patches in water of one to six feet in depth.

In the adjacent forest, the elegant Metrosideros Colensoi, with its weeping branches, clothed many of the tallest trees; when in flower, in December and January, it must present a charming sight, the rose-coloured flowers being borne on the extremities of its slender pendulous shoots. It would be a striking addition to the lawn or shrubbery if grafted on the rata or pohutukawa, and treated as a weeping tree. A Fuchsia, of sub-scandent rambling habit, was found here, but without flower or fruit; it is, perhaps, a form of F. Colensoi. Myosotis Forsteri occurred sparingly. Asplenium australe was collected of unusual luxuriance, some of the fronds being six feet high. Occasional specimens of the kauri were observed, but it is decidedly rare.

Waikare Lake is of irregular shape, and about eight miles long by three in width. It presents a marked contrast to Whangape Lake, in the comparative absence of lacustrine vegetation. The only representative of the charads was Nitella Hookeri, which occurred in large masses; the undescribed Ranunculus, already referred to, was abundant, but nowhere to be seen in flower. The maritime plants, Scirpus maritimus, Ruppia maritima, Leptocarpus

filiformis, were abundant, together with Selliera radicans, Cav., at the east end of the lake. Isoëtes Kirkii occurred in scattered patches in many parts of the lake, but was nowhere so abundant as at Whangape, nor did it make any approach to covering the bottom in those places where it grew; this is probably owing to the shifting sandy nature of the bed of the lake. The uliginal vegetation is similar to that of Whangape Lake.

The Waihi Lake is smaller than either of those just described; it has, however, a more copious vegetation than either. The very imperfect examination made of this lake, exhibited Elatine Americana, and most of the plants previously collected, together with an undescribed Cladium, with a much branched drooping panicle and long sheathing bracts, but the specimens were too far advanced to admit of an accurate diagnosis being drawn. A slender Utricularia, with weak stems two feet long, much divided capillary leaves, and rather large bladders on the leaves, was observed in several places at the bottom of the lake, but, of course, without fruit or flower at this season. It may prove to be a form of U. protrusa, Hook., originally discovered by Mr. Colenso in the Bay of Plenty, and which has not been found elsewhere.

Tetragonia expansa, usually confined to the vicinity of the sea, occurred by the marshes, and as an abundant weed on native cultivations; nearly every specimen was proliferous, a phenomenon I have not before noticed in connection with this plant.

At Taupiri, Rangiriri, and other places, the false acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia) is abundantly naturalized; it already forms coppices in many localities, and from its great durability is likely to prove serviceable for fencing purposes. The ordinary cultivated fruits, the fig, peach, vine, Kentish cherry, strawberry, raspberry, and tomato, are abundantly naturalized in many localities; the tobacco and thorn-apple (Datura stramonium) are occasionally met with, and Navarretia squarrosa, Hook. and Arn., is plentiful at Ngarnawahia, whilst the vicinity of every township and military post is marked by a large number of exotic grasses and viatical plants, one of the most common being Lepidium ruderale, a littoral plant which has, of late years, spread largely over the interior of the British Islands, and is increasing rapidly in this colony.

Above Ngaruawahia the current of the Waikato becomes much more rapid, consequently the vegetation at the margin of the river is greatly diminished in quantity, forming a marked contrast with that of the sluggish Waipa, which is fringed with a dense margin of uliginal and paludal plants. Approaching Hamilton, the river runs between high banks, clothed with Weinmannia racemosa and other shrubs, mixed with luxuriant clumps of wharaekie (Phormium Colensoi); in fruit this plant is easily distinguished from P. tenax by its twisted and rounded capsules, which are invariably pendulous, never erect and angled as in P. tenax. The fibre is also much weaker, in fact,

The district is divided by the Waitemata into two parts, the well known Isthmus of Auckland, comprising the City of Auckland, with the towns of Onehunga and Panmure, and Takapuna, or the North Shore, which includes the site of the pretty town of Devonport.

The Isthmus of Auckland comprises an area of about 30,000 acres, its extreme length being about eleven miles, from the Whau Creek to the Tamaki, and its extreme width rather more than six miles. On the north, east, and west, it is bounded by the Waitemata, the Tamaki Creek, and Whau Creek, with the exception of a portage, less than two miles in length, from the Whau Creek to Motu Karaka on the Manukau; and the still shorter portage between Halswell's Creek on the Tamaki, and Fairburn's Creek on the Manukau. On the west, it is bounded by the Manukau from Motu Karaka to Fairburn's Creek, a distance of ten miles, not making allowance for the indentations of the shore. Thus, with the exception of about three miles, it is bounded by water.

The Takapuna District comprises that part of the North Shore extending from the North Head of the Waitemata to Lucas' Creek, and from the head of Lucas' Creek to Omangia Bay on the outer coast. It is roughly triangular in shape, and, with the exception of less than six miles from the head of the creek to Omangia Bay, is bounded by the sea. Its area is about 13,000 acres.

The entire area thus comprises about 43,000 acres, no part of which is more than eight miles in a direct line from Queen-street wharf.

Both districts belong to the tertiary formation, and are composed of stiff clays, marls, and sandstones. On the Isthmus this has been pierced by numerous volcanoes, the lava streams and ashes from which cover fully two-fifths of its area, affording a soil of great fertility. Amongst the lava streams are considerable depressions, which, from the drainage becoming obstructed, form extensive swamps, in some cases dried up during the summer. The hills are volcanic cones, of low elevation, the highest being Mount Eden, which is only 642 feet above the sea level. In the Takapuna District volcanic action has been confined to the North Head, Mount Victoria, the western shore of Shoal Bay. The Pupuke Lake fills the bed of a crater about two-thirds of a mile in diameter, and has a depth of twenty-eight fathoms. The highest point is Mount Victoria, which is under 300 feet.

Nearly the whole of the Isthmus has been brought under cultivation,^* although here and there patches of clay land, or unusually rough portions of a lava stream, yield merely a sparse return of native grasses, with a large number of introduced plants; these are, however, rapidly decreasing, and from the almost entire destruction of the clumps of bush that formerly clothed the gullies, and the scrub that concealed the ruggedness of the scoria, indigenous

plants exist even under less favourable circumstances than in an agricultural county in England, for the friendly shelter of hedge-rows and patches of coppice is almost unknown. In the Takapuna section, the unreclaimed clay lands have been so frequently fired, that the natural vegetation over large areas is restricted to stunted tea-tree and similar small shrubs, with a few grasses and introduced plants, the soil itself becoming deteriorated in an increasing ratio with each successive burning.

The scoria cones of the Isthmus have become covered with a dense sward of introduced grasses and small forage plants, amongst which a few native plants, as Carex breviculmis, Ranunculus australis, Danthonia semi-annularis, and others, still maintain their existence; in rough places, if at all sheltered, Doodia caudata, Adiantum œthiopicum, and A. hispidulum, are usually found, and appear to flourish with as great vigour as when on the stiff clays. Another interesting fern, Gymnogramme leptophylla, is occasionally observed on bare places, but from its small size is easily overlooked. Scleranthus biflorus forms patches amongst the introduced grasses, varied by occasional masses of Acœna sanguisorbœ and A. Novœ Zelandiœ, contrasted with solitary plants of Vittadinia australis. Numerous ferns and low-growing plants are found amongst the blocks of scoria which form the lava fields in all directions, and, where the shrubs and small trees have been preserved, these exhibit a luxuriance of growth for which one is altogether unprepared. Polypodium Cunninghamii frequently produces fronds over twelve inches in length, Hymenophyllum Javanicum, and Trichomanes humile, are often found in the most luxuriant state. The same remark applies, in an equal degree, to the shrubs and trees found in these seemingly unfavourable habitats; Tetranthera calicaris, Griselinia lucida, Brachyglottis repanda, Alectryon excelsum, Panax Lessoni, are abundant, and attain their usual stature and bulk. This luxuriance of growth in such an unpromising locality is a striking proof of the great amount of moisture in the atmosphere of the district. Taking 100 to represent saturation, the mean for Auckland is found to be 75; only two localities in the colony are known to give higher means, viz., Taranaki and Hokitika, for which the figures are respectively 80 and 90.

Astelia Solandri occurs frequently on the rocks, and is usually accompanied by by Peperomia Urvilleana; more rarely, Astelia Banksii is found in similar situations. Cheilanthes Sieberi and Nothochlœna distans are abundant upon exposed rocks, as are Pellœa falcata and P. rotundifolia in sheltered rocky places; while Asplenium flabellifolium in many localities lines every crevice with a drapery of the tenderest green.

The undulating clay hills and gullies are mostly clothed with low-growing tea-tree and Pomaderris ericifolia, varied by clumps of fastigiate Dracophyllum squarrosum. Cordyline Pumilio, Lycopodium densum, and Phylloglossum Drummondii are to be found in all suitable localities, and in wet places,

Drosera binata, Lycopodium laterale, and Gleichenia hecistophylla are abundant; the lower parts of the gullies are usually swamps filled with raupo, and edged with a varied growth of sedges and other uliginal plants, amongst which Isachne australis often occurs in abundance; the slopes are often clothed with low scrub, chiefly composed of the commoner heathworts, Coprosma lucida, Cordyline Banksii, etc.

Conspicuous in the patches of bush still remaining are Tetranthera calicaris, Vitex littoralis, Metrosideros robusta, Nesodaphne Tawa, N. Tarairi, Leptospermum ericoides, Myrsine salicina, M. australis, Persoonia Toro, Knightia excelsa, Elœocarpus dentatus, Hedycaria dentata, Dammara australis, with many other fine species, accompanied by the chief characteristic undergrowth of the northern forest, Alseuosmia macrophylla, Coprosma grandifolia, etc., and many small ferns. Astelia Solandri, Pittosporum cornifolium, Dendrobium Cunninghamii, Earina mucronata, and E. autumnalis are commonly epiphytic on the larger trees, Tmesipteris Forsteri is epiphytic on the stems of Cyathea medullaris, C. dealbata, and Dicksonia squarrosa.

On the coast the pohutukawa is still common, although all specimens sufficiently large for the purposes of the ship-builder have long since been removed, except at the Pupuke Lake, where some noble examples are yet to be seen. Astelia Banksii is abundant in sheltered places on the cliffs, and, in some localities, the renga-renga (Arthropodium cirrhatum), makes a fine display. Crantzia lineata, Paspalum distichum, Triglochin triandrum, Chenopodium ambiguum, and Salicornia indica are common in salt marshes and mud flats, whilst most of the ordinary littoral plants may be found in the varied habitats afforded by a coast line of fully sixty miles, making due allowance for the indentations and windings of the shore.

The chief localities for plants of special interest are Waiatarua or St. John's Lake, the lava field near Mount Wellington, etc., the head of the Manukau, the Onehunga Springs, the Bishop's Creek, Coxe's Creek, etc., on the Isthmus; in the Takapuna section, the North Head, Pupuke Lake, and the deep gullies near Stokes' Point.

A few species appear to reach their ultimate range of distribution in this small area :—Pomaderris elliptica attains its southern limit at the Whau and Lucas' Creeks; Acœna Novœ Zelandiœ, Corysanthes Cheesemanii, Astelia Hookeriana, have not yet been observed south of the Tamaki; nor has Phylloglossum Drummondii.

Viola Lyallii, Potentilla anserina, Myosotis Forsteri, and Carex inversa apparently find here their northern limits, and are remarkably local.

The effects of the changed conditions of plant life incidental to agricultural progress, are chiefly exhibited in two directions,—(1.) the restriction of species once plentiful in the district, to narrow habitats, in some cases to a few individuals only, and conversely in the increase of a limited number of species;—

(2.) in the rapid diffusion of many introduced plants, followed under certain circumstances by a further displacement of indigenous forms. Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence to show that the operations of the settler have entirely eradicated even a single species; although many forms once common in the district have become extremely local, and exist under widely altered conditions. This conclusion is not invalidated by the absence of several species,—Colobanthus Billardieri, Spergularia marina, Plagianthus betulinus, Panax Edgerleyi, Griselinia littoralis, Loranthus tetrapetalus, Olearia albida, Celmisia longifolia, Ozothœmnus glomeratus, Sapota costata, Veronica macro- carpa, V. parviflora, Aspidium coriaceum; for although on various grounds they might reasonably be expected to occur in the district, they are, with one or two exceptions, also absent from wide adjacent areas both to the north and south. This conclusion is further supported by the fact, that notwithstanding the sameness of the conditions under which vegetation exists in this district, it yet affords a larger number of indigenous species than any similar area which has yet been examined.^*

Although the Flora now under consideration is that of a very limited area, and has had the conditions of plant-life greatly modified, it may fairly be taken as representative of the Flora of the colony, and pre-eminently of that of the Northern Island, excepting in both cases the alpine and sub-alpine sections. More than 200 of the plants now enumerated are common to the extreme north and the extreme south, 350 are common to both islands, and rather less than 100 species are peculiar to the North Island. No species is absolutely circumscribed within its limits, although several of its members are extremely local. Compared with the number of Phænogams and Ferns comprised in the New Zealand Flora, its members are in the proportion of 1 to 2.8; separately, the Phænogams as 1 to 2.7, the Ferns and Fern allies 1 to 1.7. The number of species known to occur in an indigenous condition in the Province of Auckland is upwards of 800, of which considerably more than half may be collected in the immediate vicinity of its capital.

A comparison of the Floras of the chief centres of settlement in the colony would afford results at once interesting and instructive, but the materials for making a comparison of this kind have not yet been prepared. It is, however, highly probable that the Flora of the immediate vicinity of Wellington will prove even more typically representative of that of the entire colony, although less purely characteristic of the North Island. It may be expected to exhibit a somewhat larger number of Ferns, with a smaller number of Phænogams.

• 10. Acæna Novæ Zelandiæ, Kirk, n. s.

• 5. Quintinia serrata, A. Cunn.

• 10. Carpodetus serratus, Forst.

• 10. Weinmannia silvicola, Banks & Sol.

• 10, Tillæa verticillaris, DC.

• 15. Drosera binata, Lab.

• 20. " auriculata, Backh.

• 20. Haloragis alata, Jacq.

• 15. " tetragyna, Lab., v. diffusa

• 5. " depressa, Hook. f.

• 20. " micrantha, Br.

• 5. Myriophyllum variæfolium, Hook. f.

• 3. " robustum, Hook. f.

• 15. Callitriche Muelleri, F. Sond.

• 20. Leptospermum scoparium, Forst.

• 10. " ericoides, A. Rich.

• " " var.

• 5. Eugenia Maire, A. Cunn.

• 10. Metrosideros florida, Sm.

• 3. " diffusa, Sm.

• 5. " hypericifolia, A. Cunn.

• 5. " robusta, A. Cunn.

• 10. " tomentosa, A. Cunn.

• 15. " scandens, Banks & Sol.

• 15. Myrtus bullata, Banks & Sol.

• 15. Fuchsia excorticata, L. fil.

• 15. Epilobium nummularifolium, A. Cunn.

• " b. nerteroides

• 15. " rotundifolium, Forst.

• 5. " glabellum, Forst.

• 10. " “tetragonum,” L.

• 15. " junceum, Forst.

• 15. " pubens, A. Rich.

• 5. " Billardierianum, Serin.

• 15. " pallidiflorum, Sol.

• 15. Passiflora tetrandra, Banks & Sol.

• 5. Sicyos angulatus, Sol.

• 10. Mesembryanthemum australe, Sol.

• 5. Tetragonia expansa, Murr.

• 5. Hydrocotyle elongata, A. Cunn.

• 3. " Americana, L.

• 15. " Asiatica, L.

• 3. " pterocarpa, F. Muell.

• 3. " Novæ Zelandiæ, DC.

• 10. " moschata, Forst.

• " var.

• 5. Crantzia lineata, Nutt.

• 15. Apium australe, Thouars

• 15. " filiforme, Hook.

• 3. " leptophyllum, F. Mueller.

• 10. Daucus brachiatus, Sieb.

• 10. Panax crassifolium, Dene & Planch

• 15. " Lessonii, DC.

• 15. Panax arboreum, Forst.

• 15. Schefflera digitata, Forst.

• 10. Griselinia lucida, Forst.

• 5. Corokia buddleoides, A. Cunn.

• 5. " cotoneaster, Raoul.

• 5. Loranthus micranthus, Hook. f.

• 2. Viscum salicornioides, A Cunn.

• 10. Alseuosmia macrophylla, A. Cunn.

• 3. " quercifolia. A. Cunn.

• 3. " linariifolia, A. Cunn.

• 15. Coprosma lucida, Forst.

• 15. " grandifolia, Hook. f.

• 3. " Baueriana, Endl.

• 15. " robusta, Raoul.

• 5. " Cunninghamii, Hook. f.

• 5. " spathulata, A. Cunn.

• 10. " tenuicaulis, Hook. f.

• 5. " “crassifolia,” Col.

• 3. " divaricata, A. Cunn.

• 5. " acerosa, A. Cunn.

• 5. Nertera dichondræfolia, Hook. f.

• 3. " Cunninghamii, Hook. f.

• Galium tenuicaule, A. Cunn. T. F. Cheeseman.

• 10. " umbrosum, Forst.

• 15. Olearia furfuracea, Hook. f.

• 15. " Cunninghamii, Hook. f.

• 10. " Solandri, Hook. f.

• 5. Vittadinia australis, A. Rich.

• 15. Lagenophora Forsteri, DC.

• 5. " petiolata, Hook. f.

• 15. Bidens pilosa, L.

• 20. Cotula coronopifolia, L.

• 20. " australis, Hook. f.

• 5. " minor, Hook. f.

• 15. " minuta, Forst.

• 10. Cassinia leptophylla, A. Cunn.

• 5. Gnaphalium keriense, A. Cunn.

• 10. " luteo-album, L.

• 20. " involucratum, Forst.

• 20. " collinum, Lab.

• 10. Erechtites arguta, DC.

• 10. " scaberula, Hook. f.

• 10. " quadridentata, DC.

• 15. Senecio lautus, Forst.

• 3. " glastifolius, Hook. f.

• 15. Brachyglottis repanda, Forst.

• 5. Picris hieracioides, L.

• 15. Sonchus oleraceus, L.

• 15. Wahlenbergia gracilis, A. DC.

• 15. Lobelia anceps, Thumb.

• 10. Selliera radicans, Cav.

• 15. Gaultheria antipoda, Forst.

• 15. Cyathodes acerosa, Br.

• 15. Leucopogon fasciculatus, A. Rich.

• 15. Leucopogon Frazeri, A. Cunn.

• 10. Epacris pauciflora, A. Rich.

• 5. Drachophyllum latifolium, A. Cunn

• 10. " " squarrosum, Hook. f.

• 5. " " Urvilleanum, A. Rich

• 5. Myrsine salicina, Hew.

• 15. " " Urvillei, A. DC.

• 15. Samolus repens, Pers.

• 3. Olea Cunninghamii, Hook. f.

• 3. " " lanceolata, Hook. f.

• 15. Parsonsia albiflora, Raoul

• 15. Geniostoma ligustrifolium, A. Cunn.

• 1. Myosotis Forsteri, Rœm. & Sch.

• 20. Convolvulus sepium, L.

• 15. " " Tuguriorum, Forst.

• 5. " " Soldanella, L.

• 15. Dichondra repens, Forst.

• 15. Solanum aviculare, Forst.

• 15. " " nigrum, L.

• 3. Mimulus Colensoi, Kirk, n. s.

• 3. Gratiola sexden'ata, A. Cunn.

• 10. Glossostigma elatinoides, Benth.

• 5. Limosella aquatica, L., var. tenuifolia

• 20. Veronica salicifolia, Forst.

• 5. " " elongata, Benth.

• 10. Rhabdothamnus Solandri, A. Cunn.

• 15. Vitex littoralis, A. Cunn.

• 10. Avicennia officinalis, L.

• 15. Myoporum lœtum, Forst.

• 6. Chenopodium triandrum, Forst.

• 10. " " glaucum, L., var. ambignum.

• 5. " " carinaturm, Br.

• 5. Suœda maritima, Dumort

• 15. Salicornia indica, Willd.

• 15. Scleranthus bifloms, Hook. f.

• 20. Polygonum minus, Hud., var. decipiens

• 20. " " aviculare, L.

• 15. Muhlenbeckia adpressa, Lab.

• 15. " " complexa, Meisn.

• 15. Rumex flexuosus, Forst.

• 10. Tetranthera calicaris, Hook. f.

• 10. Nesodaphne Tarairi, Hook. f.

• 10. " " Tawa, Hook. f.

• 15. Hedycarya dentata, Forst.

• 10. Knightia excelsa, Br.

• 5. Persoonia Toro, A. Cunn.

• 5. Pimelia longifolia, Banks & Sol.

• 5. " " virgata, Vahl.

• 15. " " prostrata, Vahl. var. sub-erecta

• 3. Santalum Cunninghamii, Hook. f.

• 10. Euphorbia glauca, Forst.

• 5. Epicarpurus microphyllus, Raoul.

• 15. Parietaria debilis, Forst.

• 10. Elatostemma rugosum, A. Cunn.

• 10. Peperomia Urvilleana, A. Rich.

• 15. Piper excelsum, Forst.

• 10. Dammara australis, Lamb.

• 10. Podocarpus ferruginea, Don.

• 10. " " Totara. A. Cunn.

• 5. " " spicata, Br.

• 10. " " dacrydioides, A. Rich

• 10. Dacryditum cupressinum, Soland.

• 5. Phyllocladus trichomanoides, Don.

II.—Monocotyledons.

• 10. Earina mucronata, Lindl.

• 10. " " autumnalis, Hook.

• 10. Dendrobium Cunninghamii, Lindl.

• 10. Bolbophyllum pygmæum, Lindl.

• 5. Sarcochilus adversus, Hook. f.

• 1. Gastrodia Cunninghamii, Hook. f.

• 15. Acianthus Siclairii, Hook. f.

• 5. Cyrtostylis oblonga, Hook. f.

• 5. Corysanthes triloba, Hook. f.

• 5. " " oblonga, Hook. f.

• 3. " " macrantha, Hook. f.

• 3. " " Cheesemanii, Hook. f.

• 15. Microtis porrifolia, Spreng.

• 10. Caladenia minor, Hook. f.

• 10. Pterostylis Banksii, Brown

• " " b. australis

• 5. " " graminea, Hook. f.

• 10. " " trullifolia, Hook. f.

• 5. Pterostylis puberula, Hook. f.

• 1. Chiloglottis cornuta, Hook. f.

• 15. Thelymitra longifolia, Forst.

• 3. " " pnlchella, Hook. f.

• 1. Spiranthes australis, Lindl., T. F. Cheeseman

• 15. Orthoceras Solandri, Lindl.

• 5. Prasophyllum pumilum, Hook. f.

• 5. Libertia ixioides, Spreng.

• 3. " " grandiflora, Sweet.

• 5. Freycinetia Banksii, A. Cunn.

• " " var. picta

• 20. Typha latifolia, L.

• 15. Sparganium simplex, Hud.

• 5. Lemnor minor, L.

• 10. Triglochin triandrum, Mich.

•   Potamogeton “natans”

• Zostera marina, L.

• 15. Rhipogonum scandens, Forst.

• 10. Cordyline australis, Hook. f.

• 10. " " Banksii, Hook. f.

• 5. " " Pumilio, Hook. f.

• " " var.

• 10. Dianella intermedia, Endl.

• 5. Astelia Cunninghamii, Hook. f.

• " " Hookeriana, Kirk, n. s.

• 5. " " “grandis” Hook., f.

• 15. " " Solandri, A. Cunn.

• 5. " " n. s.

• 15. " " Banksii, A. Cunn.

• 10. Arthropodium cirrhatum, Br.

• 15. Phormium tenax, Forst.

• 5. " " Colensoi, Hook. f.

• 5. Areca sapida, L.

• 5. Juncns australis, Hook. f.

• 10. " " maritimus, Lam.

• 10. " " communis, E. Meyer

• " " var. hexandra

• 15. " " planifolius, Br.

• 20. " " bufonius, L.

• 10. " " Holoschœnus, Br.

• 5. Luzula campestris, DC.

• 15. Leptocarpus simplex, A. Rich.

• 3. Calorophus elongatus, Lab., T. F. Cheeseman

• 20. Cyperus ustulatus, A. Rich.

• 15. " " tenellus, L. fil.

• 15. Schœnus axillaris, Hook. f.

• 15. " " tenax, Hook. f.

• 15. " " Tendo, Banks and Sol.

• 5. " " tenuis, Kirk, n. s.

• 10. Scirpus maritimus, L.

• 10. " " lacustris, L.

• 5. Eleocaris sphacelata, Br.

• 15. " " acuta, Br., var. platylepis

• " " " "var. ambigna

• 15. " " gracillima, Hook. f.

• 20. Isolepis nodosa, Br.

• 15. " " prolifer, Br.

• 15. " " riparia, Br.

• 3. Desmoschœnus spiralis, Hook. f.

• 15. Cladium glomeratum, Br.

• 20. " " teretifolium, Br.

• 5. " " articulatum, Br.

• 10. " " Gunnii, Hook. f.

• 15. " " junceum, Br.

• 10. " " Sinclairii, Hook. f.

• 10. Gahnia setifolia, Hook. f.

• 3. " " pauciflora, Kirk, n. s.

• 20. " " lacera, Steud.

• 15. Gahnia arenaria, Hook. f.

• 15. Lepidosperma tetragona, Lab.

• 10. " " concava, Br.

• 15. Uncinia australis, Pers.

• 10. " " Banksii, Boott., var.

• 3. Carex in versa, Br.

• 15. " " virgata, Sol.

• " " b. secta.

• 3. " " subdola, Boott.

• 10. " " ternaria, Forst.

• 10. " " testaria, Soland

• 15. " " lucida, Boott.

• 5. " " pumila, Thunb.

• 15. " " Forsteri, Wahl.

• 15. " " breviculmis, Br.

• 10. " " Neesiana, Endl.

• 10. " " dissita, Sol.

• 10. " " Lambertiana, Boott.

• 5. " " vacillans, Soland

• 20. Microlæna stipoides, Br.

• 10. " " avenacea, Hook. f.

• 5. Hierochloe redolens, Br.

• 3. Spinifex hirsutus, Lab.

• 10. Paspalum scrobiculatum, L.

• 10. " " distichum, Burm.

• 10. Panicum imbecille, Trin.

• 15. Isachne australis, Br.

• 5. Zoysia pungens, Willd.

• 10. Echinopogon ovatus, Pal.

• 10. Dichelachne stipoides, Hook. f.

• 15. " " crinita, Hook. f.

• 3. " " sciurea, Hook. f.

• 10. Sporobolus elongatus, Br.

• 20. Agrostis æmula, Br.

• 15. " " Billardieri, Br.

• 20. " " quadriseta, Br.

• 20. Arundo conspicua, Forst.

• 20. Danthonia semi-annularis, Br.

• " " var. pilosa

• " " var. setifolia

• " " var. tenuis

• 5. Trisetum antarcticum, Trin.

• 4. Glyceria stricta, Hook. f.

• 5. Poa imbecilla, Forst.

• 20. " " anceps, Forst.

• " " var. foliosa

• " " var. densiflora

• 3. " " australis, Br., vera.

• " " var. Iævis

• 3. Festuca littoralis, Br.

• 5. Bromus arenarius, Lab.

• 5. Triticum multiflorum, Banks & Sol.

• 5. " " scabrum, Br.

Lastly, while many species, as the water-cress, cat's-car, furze, and the various docks, are perfectly irrepressible, others, as Fredia olitoria, Lepidium sativum, Alchemilla arvensis, etc., are content with little more than maintaining an unobtrusive existence.

• Ranunculus acris.

• " " repens.

• Fumaria officinalis.

• Nasturtium amphibium.

• Barbarea præcox, Br.

• Sisymbrium officinale.

• Senebiera coronopus, Poér.

• " " pinnatifida, DC.

• Capsella bursa-pastoris.

• Lepidium ruderale.

• " " sativum.

• Cochlearia armoracea.

• Sinapis nigra.

• " " arvensis.

• Brassica rapa.

• " " napus.

• " " oleracea.

• " " campestris.

• Raphanus sativus.

• Polygala myrtifolia.

• Yitis vinifera.

• Silene inflata, Sm.

• " " quinquevulnera.

• Saponaria vaccaria.

• Lychnis githago, Lam.

• " " flos-cuculi.

• Stellaria media, With.

• Cerastium vulgatum.

• " " viscosum.

• Polycarpon tetraphyllum.

• Spergula arvensis.

• Portulaca oleracea.

• Hypericum humifusum.

• Malva sylvestris.

• " " rotundifolia.

• Modiola multifida, Meneh.

• Lavatera arborea.

• Linum usitatissimum.

• Geranium dissectum.

• Pelargonium quercifolium.

• Erodium cicutarium.

• Podalyria sericea, W.

• Ulex europæus.

• Lotus corniculatus.

• " " major.

• Trifolium pratense.

• " " medium.

• " " glomeratum.

• " " repens.

• Trifolium procumbens.

• " " minus.

• Melilotus officinalis, Willd.

• " " arvensis, Willd.

• Medicago lupulina.

• " " maculata.

• " " denticulata, Willd.

• Psoralea pinnata, Willd.

• Indigofera viscosa, Lam.

• Robinia pseudacacia, Willd.

• Vicia sativa.

• " " hirsuta.

• " " tetrasperma, Mœnch.

• Lathyrus odoratus, Willd.

• Dolichos lignosus.

• Acacia lophantha, Willd.

• " " decurrens, Willd., var. dealbata

• Amygdalus Persica.

• Prunus cerasus.

• Spiræa salicifolia, Willd.

• Rubus discolor, W. and N.

• " " rudis, Wrihe.

• " " Idæus.

• Fragaria vesca.

• Alchemilla arvensis.

• Rosa micrantha, Sm

• " " rubiginosa.

• " " canina.

• " " indica.

• " " multiflora, Thunb.

• Lythrum hyssopifolium.

• " " Græfferi, Cust.

• Œnothera stricta.

• Cucurbita citrullus.

• " " sp.

• Apium graviolens.

• Petroselinum sativum.

• Pimpinella saxifraga.

• Fœniculum vulgare.

• Daucus carota.

• Pastinaca sativa.

• Torilis nodosa, Gart.

• Scaudix pecten-veneris.

• Sambucus nigra.

• Galium aparine.

• Sherardia arvensis.

• Fedia olitoria.

• Erigeron canadensis.

• Bellis perennis.

• Anthernis arvensis.

• " " nobilis.

• Achillea millefolium.

• Matricaria inodora.

• " " chamomilla.

• Chrysanthemum leucanthemum.

• " " segetum.

• Senecio vulgaris.

• " " scandens.

• Osteospermum moniliferum, Willd.

• Cryptostemma calendulacea, Br.

• Centaurea nigra.

• " " solstitialis.

• " " calcitrapa.

• Carduus lanceolatus, Gœrtm.

• Silybum Marianum.

• Lapsana communis.

• Cichorium Intybus.

• Hypochæris glabra.

• " " radicata.

• Thrincia hirta, Roth.

• Apargia autumnalis, Willd.

• Tragopagon minor, Fries.

• " " porrifolius.

• Helminthia ectrioides, Gœrt.

• Sonchus oleraceus.

• " " arvensis.

• Taraxacum dens-leonis, Desf.

• Crepis vircus.

• Xanthium spinosum.

• Anagallis arvensis.

• " " var. cærulea

• Vinca major.

• Erythrea centaurium, Pers.

• Lithospermum arvense.

• Aselepias nivea.

• Solanum nigrum.

• " " tuberosum.

• " " virginianum.

• " " indicum.

• Physalis Alkekengi.

• " " peruvianum.

• Capsicum annuum.

• Lycopersicum esculentum, Mill.

• Datura stramonium.

• Nicotiana tabacum.

• Liycium barbarum.

• Verbascum thapsus.

• " " glabrum.

• " " blattaria.

• Veronica arvensis.

• " " serpyllifolia.

• " " agrestis.

• " " Buxbaumii, Ten.

• Digitalis purpurea.

• Linaria elatine, Mill.

• Verbena officinalis.

• " " bonariensis, Willd.

• Orobanche Picrides, F. Schultz, var.

• Mentha piperita, Sm.

• " " viridis.

• " " dentata.

• Stachys arvensis.

• Marrubium vulgare.

• Prunella vulgaris.

• Phytolacca octandra.

• Plantago major.

• " " media.

• " " lanceolata.

• Fagopyrum esculentum, Manch.

• Rumex conglomeratus, Murr.

• " " viridis, Sibth.

• " " obtusifolius.

• " " crispus.

• " " acetosa.

• " " acetosella.

• Chenopodium album.

• " " viride.

• " " murale.

• Amaranthus oleraceus.

• " " Blitum.

• " " caudatus.

• Euphorbia Peplus.

• Ricinus Palma Christi.

• Urtica urens.

• " " dioica.

• Ficus Carica.

• Canna Indica, Rose.

• Iris Germanica.

• Antholyza æthiopica, Ker.

• Watsonia, sp.

• Agave americana.

• Allium vineale.

• Asphodelus fistulosus.

• Asparagus officinalis.

• Alopecurus pratensis.

• " " agrestis.

• Phleum pratense.

• Phalaris canariensis.

• Arrhenatherum avenaceum, Beauv.

• Holcus lanatus.

• " " mollis.

• Echinochloa crusgalli, Beauv.

• Sectaria virdis, Beauv.

• " " italica, Beauv.

• Agrostis vulgaris, With.

• " " canina.

• Cynodon dactylon.

• Digitaria sanguinalis, Scop.

the plants of fully one-third of this large district, say from Hokianga on the west coast southward to Mangawhare, we have scarcely any knowledge. From a little above the head of Doubtless Bay, a sandy peninsula connects the North Cape with the southern portion of the district, the length of the portion north of Doubtless Bay being about fifty-five miles, and varying in width from six miles at Ohora to about twenty-five between Cape Maria van Diemen and Cape Reinga. The entire district corresponds to the Northern area, and the Bay of Islands area as defined by Mr. Colenso. Its highest point is attained in the Maungataniwha range, and does not exceed 2800 feet, although I believe has been stated at various heights, from 2300 feet to 3000 feet. The country is varied with open fern or tea-tree land and heavy forest; much of the latter on the south-western side consisting of kahikatea. There are extensive swamps, some of which are choked with raupo and coarse sedges, whilst others support a large variety of moisture-loving plants. Grass lands are almost entirely wanting, although nearly half the native grasses have been collected in the district. The vegetation of the district, so far as the conditions of plant growth are concerned, may, with but few exceptions, be advantageously grouped as, (1.) Littoral, (2.) Ericetal, (3.) Paludal, (4.) Sylvestral. I do not propose to consider these groups in detail.

The chief distinctive features of the forest vegetation have been already pointed out by Mr. Buchanan. I need only remark that Metrosideros tomentosa, Sapota costata, Pittosporum umbellatum, P. crassifolium, and Avicennia tomentosa, belong entirely to the Littoral group, and form no portion of the forest flora, except in those places where the forest touches the sea- beach. The plants which chiefly give character to the northern forests are Dammara australis, Nesodaphne Taraire, Vitex littoralis, and Phyllocladus trichomanoides; Vitex littoralis forms the whole of the forest in several places on the western coast, and has a very different habit of growth to the generality of specimens of this tree on the eastern coast. Over the entire district, Alseuosmia macrophylla is to be met with, and in many places forms the whole of the undergrowth. All the species of this peculiar genus are found in the district, and at first sight appear to pass into each other by almost imperceptible shades of difference.

The following plants appear to be confined to this district:—Pittosporum ellipticum, Kirk, n. s., P. reflexum, (includes Gilliesianum, Trans. Vol. i., p. 143), P. pimeleoides, Hibiscus diversifolius, Ackama rosœfolia, Drosera pygmœa, Haloragis tetragyna, Meryta Sinclairii, Ozothamnus lanceolatus, Buchanan, n. s. (Trans. Vol. ii., p. 88), Colensoa physaloides, Ipomœa tuberculata, Gratiola nana, Veronica diosmœfolia, V. speciosa, Cassytha paniculata, Thelymitra Colensoi.

Of the above, eleven species are strictly endemic, and of those found in other countries the Ipomœa is the only species having a wide range. The

Hibiscus, Ipomœa, Cassytha, and Veronica diosmœfolia are the only forms that are not local in their habitats in the district.

The following plants are confined to the district, and to the Great and Little Barrier, or other outlying islands, but are not found elsewhere on the main-land:—Hymenanthera Tasmanica, Pittosporum virgatum, n. s., Olea apetala, Vahl., Pisonia umbellifera, Seem.

The following species are of more or less frequent occurrence in the district, but local elsewhere in the colony, and entirely confined to the North Island :— Pittosporum Buchanani, P. Huttoniamum, P. umbellatum, P. Kirkii, Hymenanthera crassifolia, Hibiscus Trionum, Apium leptophyllum, Pomaderris elliptica, P. Edgerleyi, Sapota costata, Atriplex Billardieri, Nephrodium Thelypteris, Prasophyllum pumilum, Doodia connexa, Nephrodium molle, Desv., Lycopodium Carolinianum, Metrosideros diffusa, Veronica elongata, Alseuosmia Banksii, Melicytus lanceolatus, Todea Africana, Nertera Cunninghamii, Australina pusilla, Cyathea Cunninghamii, Loxsoma Cunninghamii, Phyllocladus glauca.

This list might be greatly extended, but, taken in conjunction with the short preceding sections, it exhibits a more remarkable series of lowland plants than could probably be found in any other part of the colony.

The following plants highly characteristic of the flora of the southern part of the colony, are sparingly represented in the district:—Oxalis magellanica, Colobanthus Billardiari, Celmisia Munroi, C. longifolia, Olearea lacunosa, Vittadinia australis, Teucridium parvifolium, Fagus fusca, Hypolepis Millefolium.

Nearly three-fifths of the entire number of plants found in the district are common alike to the Provinces of Auckland and Otago, but, although found over the same extent of country as to boundaries, they occur in very different ratios. Corokia Cotoneaster is found at the extremities of both islands, but there are spaces of many miles where this plant is entirely wanting, and in some of its habitats a very few specimens only are found; Myrsine australis is also found at both extremities of the island, and the traveller could not journey any great distance without meeting it in abundance. Pteris esculenta and Leptospermum scoparium are examples of plants abundant in every suitable locality between tae North Cape and the Bluff.

Before leaving this part of the subject I will notice the peculiar variation of Veronica diosmœfolia—a plant already stated amongst the endemic plants peculiar to the district, as showing in the extreme North a characteristic feature of the Veronicas peculiar to the South, a feature the more remarkable, as in this district the genus exhibits a very slight degree of variation.

Veronica diosmœfolia is a handsome species, found in various localities from Cape Reinga to the Whangarei River, and is closely allied to some states of the southern V. Colensoi. It should be remarked that the first section of

the genus, as divided by Dr. Hooker, forms two groups, with scarcely an exception; one distinguished by entire leaves, the other by the leaves being variously serrated. But, as if purposely to show that the artificial characters employed by the systematist are, after all, mere matters of convenience, this distinct species exhibits two forms, one of which would, by the division just stated, be placed in the first group, the other in the second. In the first variety the leaves are close set, spreading, margined, entire; corymbs axillary, rarely terminal, flowers pale lilac, produced in great abundance, about October and November only. The second form exhibits the leaves close set, usually appressed in a greater or lesser degree, serrated or rather closely incised, as if simply cut with a pair of scissors, serratures and edges of the leaves margined; corymbs usually terminal, flowers white, produced more or less freely the whole year. The latter form was first observed by Dr. Hector and Mr. Buchanan, at the Bay of Islands, and is decidedly more local than the typical form. I have to express my thanks to Mr. D. Hay, for the opportunity of examining recent wild specimens collected by Mrs. Clarke.

The occurrence of Veronica diosmœfolia and V. elongata exhibits a curious phenomenon, absolutely without parallel in any other part of the colony—both species are the sole representatives in the district of their respective groups, both are endemic, and restricted to small areas; but the first, in general appearance and liability to a certain amount of variation, is a marked representative of the forms of the genus which are peculiar to the southern hemisphere; the other, equally in general appearance and fixity of character, represents the germanders and speedwells of the northern hemisphere.

The total number of species of flowering plants and ferns already collected in the district is under 550, and falls very far short of what may fairly be expected to occur. Further additions will be made to the extent of fully one-fourth as the district is worked up by competent observers.

I must own to a feeling of disappointment on reading Mr. Buchanan's remarks on the causes of plant variation in the colony. His extensive knowledge of the vegetation of its south and south-western portions especially, had led me to expect that he would throw some light on this obscure, but interesting, subject. His remarks on the influence of wind on plants have failed to convince me of the possibility of permanent variation being produced by its agency, which is purely mechanical, as it has been again and again proved that seeds from wind-dwarfed and prematurely aged trees, descended from others grown in the same locality for ages past, are capable in ordinary situations of producing trees of the normal type and luxuriance.

Dodonœa viscosa, which is cited by Mr. Buchanan as a (possible) instance of a species exhibiting an increasing tendency to variation as it recedes from its centre of maximum growth, does not in any way support that view, whether considered with regard to New Zealand alone, or to the numerous countries in

which it is found. The causes of variation in the northern part of New Zealand, at any rate, are strictly local. At Mount Camel, he states that it is found in a peculiarly dwarf and stunted condition—the same condition is found still further north, and, contrary to the theory which he appears to support, in many localities to the south also. But on the other hand, there are luxuriant specimens, twenty feet high, to be seen at Spirits' Bay in the extreme north, which is equally opposed to the theory. At Whangarei, and at Omaha, the tree attains a height of thirty feet, while one hundred miles south of Whangarei it is seen in abundance, only a few inches in height, growing in great luxuriance, and producing well-developed large sized fruit.

In New Zealand this plant attains its extreme southern limit, and ought therefore, if the theory be worth anything whatever, to present generally a considerable amount of variation from its usual forms in Australia, America, and India; but the very opposite is the case, the variations in the New Zealand plant are simply in size and luxuriance, caused evidently by the nature of its habitat as to soil and shelter. In shape of foliage and fruit it is remarkably uniform, never producing the pinnate leaves and partially-developed fruit which, even in Australia, are not uncommon. Exposed to the full force of the wind on a sandy soil, the plant becomes stunted, the branches numerous, short and weak, the leaves small and short-lived; old specimens are frequently laden with twiggy branches, few of which are capable of developing even a solitary leaf. In sheltered woods on a good soil, it reaches its highest degree of development, attaining the height of twenty to thirty feet, with luxuriant foliage. Again, when growing on basaltic rocks the plant becomes extremely dwarf, often less than a foot in height, but not stunted, with the foliage and fruit as luxuriant as in the large sylvestral form. The causes of these departures from the luxuriant type are not far to seek. In the first form the growth of the plant is prevented by poor soil and the action of the wind, at the same time the bark and leaves are prevented from exercising their functions by the sand with which, from their viscidity, they are more or less covered. On the rocky soil the plant is dwarf from lack of nutritive matter for the roots, but is still luxuriant from a two-fold cause—the comminuted state of the limited amount of soil allowing the ready extraction of the nutritive matters it contains, and the unimpeded action of the leaves.

It must however be obvious, that the term variation has a very restricted meaning when applied to mere differences of stature and luxuriance of growth, as in the preceding observations, where the instances discussed belong to simple depauperation, and have no necessary connection with the wide subject of morphological variation.

In the present state of our knowledge of the subject, a classified statement of the plants which exhibit aberration from their typical forms, with their

Hymenanthera crassifolia, Hook. f. “Maritime rocks opposite the Cavallos Islands.”—“Handbook.”

Pittosporum Buchanani, Hook. f. 7. J. Buchanan.

" virgatum, Kirk. n. s. 3.

" ellipticum, Kirk. n. s. 1.

" ovatum, Kirk. n. s. 1 3.

" pimeleoides, R. Cunn. 2. “Handbook.”

Stellaria parviflora, Banks and Sol. 1 2.

Spergularia rubra, Pers., var. marina. Stephenson's Island. J. Buchanan.

Hypericum japonicum, Thunb. 1 2.

Linum marginale, A. Cunn. 1 2 6.

Geranium molle, L. 1 2 3 6.

Clianthus puniceus, Banks and Sol. 2. Rev. R. Taylor.

Coriaria, sps. In a foot-note to Dr. Lindsay's remarks on this genus, in his Contributions to the Botany of New Zealand, he writes, — “I find the opinion that there are three ‘kinds’ of ‘Toot’ unanimous among the more observant settlers alike of Otago and Auckland, (representing Wanganui, Raglan, Coromandel, Kaipara, Hokianga, and other districts in the latter province.)” It is difficult to account for the origin of this error. C. ruscifolia is common over the entire province, and varies from a dwarf shrubby or even sub-herbaceous plant, to a small tree; the last form however being comparatively rare. It is possible that the extreme forms may be considered distinct by settlers not well acquainted with the plant, but I never met with anyone who expressed this opinion. Neither C. thymifolia nor C. angustissima has been found so far north as Auckland.

Ixerba brexioides, A. Cunn. 1 2.

Leptospermum ericoides, A. Rich. The peculiar dwarf pubescent form mentioned at p. 728 of the “Handbook,” is abundant in the open country about Mongonui and in other localities.

Metrosideros lucida, Menz. 1. T. F. Cheeseman.

" diffusa, Sm. 1 2.

" Colensoi, Hook. f. In the “Handbook” this is said to occur at the Bay of Islands, but Mr. Colenso believes this to be erroneous.

Myrtus obcordata, Hook. f. 1. T. F. Cheeseman.

Fuchsia procumbens, R. Cunn. Cavalhi Passage.

" Kirkii, Hook. f. 2.

Epilobium alsinoides, A. Cunn. 1.

" rotundifolium, Forst. 1 2.

" pubens, A. Rich. 1 2 3.

Sicyos angulatus, L. 1.

Hydrocotyle Novæ Zelandiæ, DC. 1.

" moschata, Forst. 1 2.

Hydrocotyle microphylla, A. Cunn. Mongonui.

Apium leptophyllum, F. Muell. 2.

Panax Lessonii, DC., var. heterophyllum. 3.

Meryta Sinclairii, Hook. f. Taranga Islands.

Viscum salicornioides, Hook. f. 1 2.

Alseuosmia quercifolia, A. Cunn. 1 2.

Coprosma, n. s. 1.

" propinqus, A. Cunn. 1 2.

Nertera Cunninghamii, Hook. f. 1 2.

Galium umbrosum, Forst. 1 2 3.

Olearia lacunosa, Hook. f. 2. J. Buchanan.

Celmisia longifolia, Cass. 2. W. Colenso.

Vittadinia australis, A. Rich. 1.

Lagenophora petiolata, Hook. f. 1 2.

Cotula minor, Hook. f. 1 2.

Erechtites arguta, DC. 1 2 3.

" scaberula, Hook. f. 1 2.

" quadridentata, DC. 1.

Senecio Colensoi, Hook. f. 2. W. Colenso.

Pratia angulata, Hook. f. 1 2.

Dracophyllum Traversii, Hook. f. 1. J. Buchanan.

Olea apetals, Vahl. Taranga Islands.

Limosella aquatica, L., var. tenuifolia. 1.

Veronica macrocarpa, Vahl. 2. “Handbook.”

Chenopodium triandrum, Forst. 1 2.

Suæda maritima, Dum. 1 2.

Atriplex Billardieri, Hook. f. Whangaruru. W. Colenso. North Cape. J. Buchanan.

Pimelia Urvilleana, A. Rich. 2. “Handbook.”

Fagus fasca, Hook. f. 1 7 8. J. Buchanan.

Urtica incisa, Poir. 1.

Parietaria debilis, Forst. 1 2.

Australina pusilla, Gaud. 1 2. W. Colenso.

Phyllocladus glauca, Carr. 1. T. K. 8. R. Mair.

Sarcochilus adversus, Hook. f. 1.

Gastrodia Cunninghamii, Hook. f. 2.

Acianthus Sinclairii, Hook. f. 1 2.

Cyrtostylis oblonga, Hook. f. 2. W. Colenso.

Corysanthes oblonga, Hook. f. 2.

" rivularis, Hook. f. 2. W. Colenso.

Caladenia minor, Hook. f. 1 2.

Pterostylis trullifolia, Hook. f. 1 2.

Thelymitra longifolia, Forst. 1 2 3 6.

" Colensoi, Hook. f. 2. W. Colenso.

" imberbis, Hook. f. 2. W. Colenso.

Orthoceras Solandri, Lindl. 1 2 3.

Lemna minor, L. 1.

Potamogeton “natans,” L. 1 2.