106 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Anas pinschi. 

 In 1876 Van Beneden described" an extinct duck, under 

 the name of A. finschi, from the large series of bones found in 

 the Earnscleugh Caves, and an abridged account was com- 

 municated by Dr. Hector to the Transactions of the New Zea- 

 land Institute.! It seems to have been a common bird in 

 localities such as the Castle Eocks and the Earnscleugh Caves. 

 It is not unlikely that it may have bred in such places, or 

 have had the habit of some of the Dendrocygnas of Australia. 

 Quite 40 per cent, of the bones must have been duck-bones. 

 The measurements of long series of these bones give an inter- 

 esting diagram (PI. VII.). To account for the great number 

 of such birds it has been suggested that perhaps the eyrie of 

 the Harpagornis was on the rock above the chasm, and that 

 these are the relics of his foraging expeditions. 



COTURNIX. 



Of the remaining birds perhaps the most interesting is the 

 now extinct New Zealand quail ; and so far I have only got 

 the sternum, tibia, and metatarsus. I believe that until a 

 comparatively recent time it must have been plentiful on the 

 open country around the Eocks ; but now skins are almost 

 priceless, and I do not know of a skeleton in any collection. 

 Two sterna in the Christchurch Museum were found in 

 Monck's Cave, at Sumner. 



List of Birds whose Eemains were found in the 



Fissure at Castle Eocks. 



Glaucopis cinerea. Ocydromus australis. 



Miro, sp. Ocydromus minor, n.s. = syl- 



Anthus novffi-zealandiae. vestris? 



Anthornis melanura. Fulica prisca, n.s. 



Stringops habroptilus. Puffinus, sp. 



Sceloglaux albifacies. Anas finschi. 



Circus gouldi. Apteryx australis. N 



Harpagornis moorei. Apteryx oweni. 



Coturnix novae-zealandise. Aptornis defossor. 



Carpophaga novoe-zealandiaQ. Anomalopteryx didinus. 



Notornis (hochstetteri '?) . „ didiformis. 



* Ann. de la Soc. G6ol. cle Belg., vol. ii., p. 123. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., 187G, art. xciii., p. 5D ( J, and pi. xxviii. 



