Eeischek. — Oil the Islands in the South. 387 



a ground -lark ; the snipe (GalUnago aucklandica) ; the 

 wandering albatross, which had just commenced to lay ; the 

 white-headed petrel [ProceUaria lessoni), whose eggs were 

 nearly all hatched. All round the shore the tussock was 

 covered with the egg-shells of the penguins, which the skua 

 gulls had carried there to devour. These birds are so ra- 

 pacious that if an egg or young bird is left alone they dart 

 down like a hawk and carry it away. I saw a half-grown pen- 

 guin crawl out of its hiding-place between some rocks, when 

 immediately two of these gulls swooped down and devoured it 

 on the spot, one eating at the neck, the other tearing open the 

 abdomen. The ground-lark and the two parrakeets are 

 entirely different from any birds found on the mainland or the 

 surrounding islands, both in size, plumage, and habits. The 

 parrakeets are larger and plumper than the New Zealand 

 species, the bill is shorter and thicker, the plumage is brighter, 

 with a peculiar shimmer towards the tips of the feathers. 

 They live in burrows in the ground, and are very difQcult to 

 shoot, as they get up almost under your feet, fly a short dis- 

 tance, and then run among the tussocks and hide themselves 

 in the holes. The larger species has the whole of the plum- 

 age of the upper parts dark-green, each feather edged with 

 lighter ; top of the head and round the bill emerald -green ; 

 throat, breast, and abdomen yellowish-green ; tail and wings 

 dark-green with yellow edges ; primaries indigo-blue ; legs 

 and bill bluish-grey, the latter black towards the tip and 

 underneath ; eyes red. Length from the tip of the bill to the 

 end of the tail, 13-5in. ; bill, l-25in. ; wing, 6in. ; primaries, 

 4-3in. ; tail, 4-5iu. ; tarsus, lin. ; middle toe, l-35in. They 

 were originally discovered by Captain Fairchild some years ago, 

 when they were plentiful and tame ; now they are rare and 

 wild. The other species which I discovered is not mentioned in 

 Buller's or Gould's books. Plumage similar to the preceding, 

 with the exception that the emerald-green round the bill is not 

 so conspicuous, and that the top of the forehead, a streak 

 below the eye, and a patch on each side of the tail-coverts are 

 brownish-red. On the back of the neck the basal half of each 

 feather is yellow. Total length, 12-25in. ; bill, lin. ; wing, 

 5-6in.; primaries, 4- 25in.; tail, 4-5in. ; tarsus, 0-9; middle toe, 

 l-15in. ■ The female is smaller in size, duller in plumage, and 

 the red is not so conspicuous. Professor Thomas, Mr. Cheese- 

 man, and I have made a careful examination of this bird, and 

 find that it is new to the New Zealand fauna ; so I have taken 

 the liberty of naming it Platycercus hochstetteri, after Arthur 

 von Hochstetter, the son of a sincere friend from whom I 

 received many kindnesses, and who has too soon passed away. 

 I now exhibit a male and female of this new species. I found 

 in their crops grass and various seeds on which they feed. 

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