MuiiGAN.— r/ie Northern Wairoa. 463 



the animal again buries itself to a depth of from 12 in. to 

 15 in. This it accomplishes by thrusting from the ventral 

 surface of the anterior end of the shell a powerful wedge-like 

 foot, which it forces into the sand by means of a peculiar 

 •wriggling movement. k% soon as the foot has penetrated as 

 far as it can reach it is made to contract and drag the animal 

 after it. It is surprising how few of these contractions are 

 required to bury the animal completely, and with what ra- 

 pidity it disappears. The settlers and natives consider the 

 toheroa a great delicacy, and, as it is easily obtained, great 

 numbers are dug up and used as food. At Mangawhare a 

 tinning-depot has been established, and already a consider- 

 able output is disposed of. It is said that the animal is con- 

 fined to a small portion of the coast reaching from the Mure- 

 wai Caves to the Maunganui Bluff; but further evidence is 

 necessai-y before accepting this statement, though, from all 

 •accounts, it has not been found in any quantity elsewhere, 

 n it be true that its habitat does not extend beyond this 

 limited range, an extremely interesting subject awaits in- 

 vestigation, for there seems to be no bar.rier to prevent its 

 spreading all along the ocean-beaches of the northern portion 

 •of the Island. Its restricted range may be caused by a food- 

 supply being confined to the area over which it is found, or 

 by the sand in which it burrows being in some way specially 

 fitted for its needs. This last conjecture does not appear to 

 be a likely one, for the sand on the west coast is constantly 

 moving. Another peculiarity is that it is found in patches, 

 these often being sepa>-ated by considerable distances. An 

 explanation of this may be that the animal lives some dis- 

 tance from the shore, and only leaves the deeper water at 

 breeding-time. Living together in great numbers on special 

 feeding-grounds, the animals may migrate at intervals to shal- 

 low water, each migration being shared in by a lai'ge number 

 of individuals.* 



The Northern Wairoa has long been the seat of a large 

 and important timber industry, the immense kauri and 

 kahikatea forests with which much of the river-basin was 

 clothed furnishing an accessible and readily mxrketable 

 supply. The kauri forests on the hills along the river and 

 in other places easily reached have long since been removed, 

 and a very few years will see the complete disappearance 

 of the kauri as a timber - producing tree in the Northern 

 Wairoa. The rapid removal of the timber may be attributed 



* Since this was written I have learnt that the toheroa occurs alone 

 the coast to the north and soath of the Riglan Ha,rbDur, and to the north 

 of PoriruaBay; but in none of these plices is it f juad ia such abundance 

 as on the ocean-beach opposite Dargiville. 



