426 Proceedings. 



be kept at less than 1 cwt. per man, and in consequence every part of the 

 track taken had to be covered three times. 



Mr. Harding suggested that if Mr. Gifford's paper was published he 

 should illustrate it by means of some of the very beautiful photographs 

 which he had taken. 



Sir James Hector thanked the author for his address, which had 

 been prepared at his special request, on very short notice. The toils, 

 dangers, and hardships of such an e-^ploration were most graphically 

 described, and were easily recognised bv early explorers, though known 

 to buc few modern tourists. The beautiful but appalling character of the 

 scenery of this wonderful district of New Zealand was also excellently 

 illustrated by the author's photographs, taken under great difficulties. 

 The same country had been partially explored in 1863 by himself (Sir J. 

 Hector), but he had chiefly followed the mountain tops and avoided the 

 valleys. At the time of the first visit of the Admiralty survey-ship 

 " Acheron " in 1850 there was a considerable Maori camp at the head of 

 Bligh Sound. The natives were not seen, but their fires were found, and 

 several mats and other articles obtained. In 1863 he himself followed up 

 this flat valley on an old trail for some distance, the Maoris he had with 

 him telling him that it led through to the Te Anau Lake and to Milford 

 Sound, but most probably the trail, which was soon lost, led over the 

 mountains, and did not follow the rugged valley and pass which the 

 author and his party had discovered.* 



Mr. Hudson said the caterpillars seen by Mr. GifEord would be 

 geometers. They had probably been frightened by a strong wmd, and let 

 themselves down from the shrubs, and wore ascending again when the 

 travellers saw them. 



Mr. Tregear said there was no occasion for Mr. Gifford to apologize 

 that his narrative was not scientific. It was the duty of the Society to 

 encourage exploration, and he was sure that Mr. GiSord's account of his 

 party's journey was highly interesting. 



3. Notes by Sir James Hector on a collection of Virginian 

 quail (Coturnix) recently imported by the Acclimatisation 

 Society. 



Sir James Hector said the specimens were some of those that died on 

 the passage, and were most artistically mounted by Mr. Yuill, taxider- 

 mist to the Museum. He reminded members that quails had a world- 

 wide distribution. The common quail of Europe was migratory, and 

 flew by night, and was shot and snared in thousands in southern Europe 

 for the supply of the market in large cities. During the migrations the 

 males arrived first, and, as they did not pair like the closely allied par- 

 tridge, but were polygamous, they indulged in furious contests for 

 supremacy, and thus fell a ready prey to the fowler. New Zealand had a 

 native quail {Coturnix novce-zealandiiv), which was a very fine bird, and 

 abounded, in the early days of settlement, in the open grass lands of 

 Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago, and afforded excellent sport, as many as 

 two or three dozen pairs being considered a fair morning's bag. Now 

 they were quite extinct, as, being ground-birds, they fell an easy prey to 

 the many enemies introduced into the colony. The brown quail of Aus- 

 tralia was a closely allied species, but was a smaller bird. A few had 

 been turned out in tlie North of Auckland and up the Wanganui Valley, 

 but they had not thriven, no doubt for the same reasons which had led to 



* Owing to the rapids and scattered fragments of rocks it was not possible to 

 examine the river beyond two miles from its mouth, when the ".\cheron" party 

 came on the fresli footmarks of some natives, who were heard making their 

 escape through the thick underwood. These people, as far ns we could learn, 

 belong to a small, isolated, and almost unknown tribe.— Notes by Captain 

 Stokes, H.M.S. "Acheron," published in the " New Zealand Pilot." 



