138 Transactions. — Zoology. 



and where there are practically no rabbits for them to prey 

 upon. They are making themselves felt, however, in other 

 respects. The rabbits devastated the pastures, but they left 

 the sheep alone. Not so with these "Government immi- 

 grants." One farmer at Kereru complains that in a single 

 night this season he lost forty lambs, each exhibiting a small 

 punctured wound, betraying the depredator. My sons had 

 their hen-roost visited at night, and a brood of valuable fowls 

 destroyed. The breeding of turkeys was at one time a profit- 

 able industry in these districts, the hen-birds forming their 

 nests in the scrub and along the outer edges of the bush ; but, 

 with these marauders abroad, a turkey has now very little 

 chance of bringing out a brood. Formerly, the Woodhen 

 (Ocydromus grcyi) was very abundant in the Horowhenua 

 and Manawatu districts, its loud and not unmusical whistle 

 being heard on all hands as the shades of evening deepened 

 into the gloom of night. Now all this is changed. The 

 responsive cries of the Woodhen are seldom heard, and 

 there is nothing to break the stillness of the night bub 

 the call of the Morepork keeping his vigils. The diminu- 

 tion in numbers of our introduced game — -Pheasants and 

 Californian Quail — must, I think, be attributed to the same 

 cause. 



Mr. Jonathan Brough, writing to me from the Pelorus, 

 says, " I have now been camped in these woods for about a 

 month — up one of the tributaries of the Pelorus Eiver known 

 as Wakamarina. I am camped a long way up the creek, at a 

 place where I used to collect birds some years ago. In those 

 days I found this a good hunting-ground ; a great number of 

 species could be then obtained in this locality; but now all this 

 is changed. I seldom see or hear any birds worth collecting. 

 The stoats and weasels have done their work. For three 

 weeks I was camped right up amongst the mountains and in 

 the heart of the bush, and I never saw a single Woodhen, 

 nor did I ever hear one. I heard one Kiwi calling, and I 

 found one dead on the ground with its head and neck muti- 

 lated by the stoats. I do not now see or hear any Saddle- 

 backs, or Pigeons, or Wrens, all of which were plentiful 

 enough in this place a few years ago. The Blue Duck used 

 to be fairly abundant in the creek, and they are now nearly 

 extinct. This time I have seen only one pair. They had a 

 brood of young ones, so I felt that I could not shoot them. 

 They had six young ones when I first saw them. I have an 

 opportunity of seeing them in the creek every day, and it is 

 very interesting to watch them. But the young ones are 

 getting fewer every week, and now there are only three left, 

 I attribute this also to the stoats, which are very numerous 

 about here. Collecting specimens of natural history in this- 



