68 Transactions. — Zoology. 



A caged specimen recently brought to me by Mr. Capper 

 presents the abnormal feature of the whole of the middle por- 

 tion of the tail being yellow, with a brown streak down the 

 shaft of each feather. 



Turnagra hectori, Buller. (The North Island Thrush.) 



Through the courtesy of Mr. J. D. Climie, District Sur- 

 veyor, I recently received from the Makuri Eanges a fine 

 specimen of this rare species, positively the first I have seen 

 in the flesh for twenty years and more. 



It is to be hoped that when the Little Barrier Island has 

 been acquired by the Government for the purposes of a "na- 

 tive birds' sanctuary " at least one pair of the North Island 

 Thrush (which is easily caught when found) may be obtained, 

 and liberated there, so as to save the species from ultimate 

 extinction. I have heard from surveyors and others that it is 

 occasionally met with (always in pairs) along the Hunterville 

 line of road, and in the wooded district north of Wanganui. 



Prosthemadera novae-zealandiae, Gmelin. (The Tui.) 



From Hastings, under date of the 18th January, the Hon. 

 Captain Eussell sends me the following note: "I have one 

 good large plant of the mountain-flax growing in my garden 

 here. It was planted by myself many years ago. This 

 evening one Tui was hopping about it extracting the honey. 

 Almost every season a pair of Tuis appear, when the flax- 

 plant is in bloom, remain a day, and then vanish — -where? 

 Why do they come ? And whence ? There is abundance of 

 the swamp-flax not far away, but I have never observed a Tui 

 upon it. There is no native bush, as you know, within miles 

 of Hastings. Possibly you may not think the circumstance 

 strange, and I mention it only because it seems so to me." 

 In reply I have told Captain Eussell that the instance he 

 records is by no means uncommon, but that it is quite im- 

 possible to account for these vagaries on the part of wild birds. 

 There is a very remarkable case within my kuowledge of a 

 Wood-pigeon (Garpopliaga nova-zealandia) which, for years 

 past, has at a particular season visited a flowering yellow 

 kowhai in a garden in front of Tinakori Eoad, in the suburbs 

 of Wellington — miles away from the nearest haunt of the 

 Pigeon— remains a day, and then disappears. It may, I 

 think, be safely assumed that the same individual bird comes 

 back season after season ; and, whatever else it may indicate, 

 it seems to furnish good evidence of the existence of memory 

 in birds as a permanent faculty. The same thing has been 

 observed of the common Seagull (Larus dominicanus) . Birds 

 that have been reared by hand in the poultry-yard and have 

 subsequently gone wild will, years after, revisit the scenes of 



