BuLLER. — On New Zealand Ornithology. 343 



and if the Government would, act as promptly in stopping 

 marauders, commonly called natural-history collectors, from 

 visiting the outlying islands of New Zealand and carrying off 

 the Tuataras and rarer birds by hundreds as it did the seal- 

 poachers in the southern islands last year, it would gain the 

 gratitude of science and coming generations." 



With the views thus forcibly expressed it is impossible not 

 to agree ; and I believe measures for the better conservation 

 of these island faunas are now under the consideration of the 

 Government. But the collection of skins for trade purposes 

 is, of course, a very different thing to the formation of a com- 

 plete type-collection for the Colonial Museum, as advocated in 

 the introduction to this paper. 



Xenicus longipes, Gmelin. (Bush-wren.) 



A correspondent has sent me for examination some beau- 

 tiful specimens of the Bush- wren, accompanied by the follow- 

 ing notes : — 



"Far up in a gloomy, wet mountain gully, nearly 4,000ft. 

 above the level of the sea, I came across a few families of this 

 little silent bird. In the gully which they were inhabiting 

 grew a dense mass of a flax-like plant — a species of Aste- 

 lia. These birds seem to display more of the golden colour 

 at the bend of the wing than any I have seen before, and they 

 do not appear to be so lai-ge as those I sent you from the Big 

 Bush some years ago. All my specimens of this bird were 

 obtained by using a small net. 



"I have not met with any Eock-wrens up in this district. 

 From where I was camped, half an hour's climb took me into 

 the open country — a bare mountain-side, in fact. I had a long 

 ramble over the rugged ridges and across the mountain-slopes, 

 or ' mountain meadows ' as they are called. I went to the 

 summit of Mount Nugget, •4,995ft., and then I went in another 

 direction to the summit of Mount Luna, 5,261ft., but I never 

 saw or heard a Rock- wren. It is clear that the species does 

 not exist in this part of the country. 



" I have been much impressed by the stillness and the 

 almost entire absence of animal life in these red-birch forests, 

 so entirely different from my experience in the Pelorus woods. 

 There, as I lay in my tent at sunrise, the woods fairly rang 

 with the chorus of songsters, the introduced Finches, 

 Thrushes, and Starlings joining in with the native birds. 

 They seem to me to be sun- worshippers. I have timed them 

 with my watch, and find that the concert lasts just an hour. 

 Here, on the contrary, there is no sun-worship. I have often 

 listened in my tent at break of day, waiting for the song to 

 commence, but there has been nothing but a chirp or two, or 

 the note of a Kaka passing overhead. And here I may remark 



