CoLENSo. — On Athene novae-zealaiidiae. 203 



"birds during their season of breeding, which lasts the summer 

 through, the following remarks may not be unacceptable : 

 About an hour before sunset (for then the mice begin to run) 

 they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round the 

 hedges of meadows and small enclosures for them, which 

 seem to be their only food. In this irregular country we can 

 stand on an eminence and see them beat the fields over like a 

 setting-dog, and often drop down in the grass or corn. I have 

 minuted these birds by my watch for an hour together, and 

 have found that they return to their nest, the one or the other 

 of them, about once in five minutes ; reflecting at the same 

 time on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of as far 

 as regards the well-being of itself and offspring. But a piece 

 of address, which they show when they return loaded, should 

 not, I think, be passed over in silence. As they take their 

 prey with their claws, so they carry it in their claws to their 

 nest : but, as their feet are necessary in their ascent under 

 the tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the chancel, 

 and shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, that their 

 feet may be at liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall as 

 they are rising under the eaves. . . The plumage of the 

 remiges of the wings of every species of owl that I have yet 

 exaujined is remarkably soft and pliant. Perhaps it may be 

 necessary that the wings of these birds should not make much 

 resistance or rushing, that they may be enabled to steal 

 through the air unheard upon a nimble and watchful quarry. 

 When brown owls hoot their throats swell as big as a 

 hen's egg. I have known an owd of this species live a full 

 year without any water. Perhaps the case may be the same 

 with all birds of prey. When owls fly they stretch out their 

 legs behind them as a balance to their heavy heads ; for as 

 most nocturnal birds have large eyes and ears they must have 

 large heads to contain them. Large eyes, I presume, are 

 necessary to collect every ray of light, and large concave ears 

 to command the smallest degree of sound or noise" [I.e., pp. 

 245, 246). 



And all these apt quotations naturally bring me back to 

 the main subject of this paper — our little New Zealand owl. 



Probably none of you present have ever been in an un- 

 frequented New Zealand forest many years ago — say, half 

 a century, or forty years. Then those woods teemed with 

 bird-life, so widely difi'erent to what has obtained of later 

 years. Then our little New Zealand owl was to be often 

 seen snugly ensconced in some sheltered umbrageous nook, 

 and not unfrequently nestling close under the fronds of the 

 tree-fern {Cyathea dealbata). There, for me, such would 

 have ever remained unmolested, but not so by the smaller 

 birds — denizens of the forest; for, as soon as his retreat 



