Hamilton. — Notes on a Visit to Macquarie Island. 573 



as on the mainland, and several were killed under our beds, 

 having come into the house when the door was left open. 

 Whilst mentioning food-supplies I may say that rabbits are 

 fairly numerous in the south-east ; they have disappeared 

 from the north owing to the wild cats, which are very nume- 

 rous and of great size. 



Another important food-supply is derived from the mutton- 

 birds, probably two species. These were seen at sea, but they 

 had not commenced to lay at the time we left, although daily 

 expected. They must be very numerous, to judge by the 

 burrows on the hills. A little dove-petrel (Prion banksii) Hies 

 to sea at night-time, and is much persecuted by the Ossifraga 

 and the Lestris. 



Lams dominicanus. — The black-backed gull was fairly plen- 

 tiful at the time of our visit, and also the small terns, Sterna 

 frontalis and Sterna antarctica. The latter was only seen at 

 the northern end of the island. 



Professor Scott, in 1880, included in his list a green parra- 

 keet, which at that time was plentiful all over the island, and 

 nested in the vegetation covering the large rocks on the beach. 

 I had also heard from a man who had been working on the 

 island some years later that they were plentiful along the sea- 

 shore near the isthmus at the north end. We took down 

 some cages to bring back some of these, but our utmost endea- 

 vours failed to procure or even see a single specimen. The 

 party at present on the island have not seen any during the 

 two years they have been there. One of them told me that he 

 had seen a large flock of them fly away northwards when he 

 was on the island about four years ago. It seems pretty cer- 

 tain that these birds have either migrated or have been 

 exterminated by the wild cats which have spread over the 

 island within the last few years. The migration theory is 

 scarcely likely, as all accounts represent the parrakeets as 

 having lost by disuse the power of sustained flight. On the 

 other hand, the birds seem to have disappeared from all parts 

 of the island, whereas the cats do not seem to have reached 

 the south at present. The parrakeets are said to have fre- 

 quented the heaps of seaweed on the seashore in search of the 

 crustaceans and other small forms of animal life. The loss of 

 this bird is much to be regretted, as we can hardly doubt that 

 it would prove to be a local race corresponding to the forms 

 found on the Antipodes and the other groups of southern islands. 

 There is no specimen of this bird in the Otago Museum. 



Of liallus macquariensis ■'- Professor Scott says, " Not 



* Buller's " Birds of New Zealand," 2nd ed., p. 95 ; and Huttcn, Ibis, 

 1870, p. 454. There is a specimen from Macquarie Island in the Otago 

 University Museum, presented by Elder and Co. 



