488 Transactions. 



Of our perching-birds, none was better known to our early 

 settlers than the kingfisher. The spread of the brown-trout ; 

 the reign of the angler ; the nest in hollow rotten trees or clay- 

 bank, easily traced and robbed by stoats and weasels ; food 

 reduced by every imported songster ; shot at by all and sundry : 

 he has not a chance. Sir Walter Buller, as late as 1882, thought 

 the bird was holding his own ; but it is evident that in the 

 last twenty years he has practically disappeared from our midst. 

 He is " holding his own " at Kaipara, Kaitaia, Bay of Islands. 

 Carnarvon, and Havelock ; " present " at a number of places 

 in both islands ; : ' extinct " at Castlepoint since stoats were 

 introduced there. I saw one at Otakou kainga on Good Friday 

 of this year. 



The stitch-bird, according to the Maoris once common 

 throughout the islands, was rare on the arrival of the pakeha. 

 no doubt owing to its striking appearance and pretty feathers ; 

 it was taken both for food and ornament. Rare in the North 

 Island, it has never been seen by a white man in the South 

 Island. This bird is now confined absolutely to the islands of 

 Kapiti and Little Barrier, where, although he is protected by 

 the Government, one fears he will soon die out. There is no 

 doubt in my mind that collectors, in the last thirty years, have 

 done much towards exterminating the stitch-bird. 



I now come to the tui, our king of birds, who is fast disappear- 

 ing from our midst — his nesting-place appropriated by the alien : 

 his nest built higher and higher in the creeping vines ; harried 

 by weasel and ferret (he has been seen fighting and struggling 

 with the red-eyed monster, falling from the dizzy height and 

 giving his life for his young). Snared in thousands by the 

 Maoris, he held his own, for his forest fortresses were intact : 

 but at last the advance of the vulgar alien has scared him, and 

 back he goes into forest primeval. Honey is taken from the 

 flax and fuchsia by many imported birds— notably the stalling 

 — and thus his chief food is lessened, if not absent. It may be 

 interesting to record here a point I have' not seen mentioned, 

 about our tui. He has a habit of flying at a great height from 

 one place to another: rising, say, from a deep wooded glen ai 

 a gradual angle, flying leisurely, he arrives at a point directly 

 over his destination, and then he absolutely drops, with a terrific 

 rush, to the bush below. When two oi three of them do this, 

 as frequently happens — and I believe they do it as a sort of 

 play— the noise as they rush through the air can be heard a 

 quarter of a mile away. I believe this is the explanation of the 

 curious fact mentioned by Dr. Ifocken in "The Early History 

 of N T ew Zealand." Mr. Tuckett's diary says, "All the people 

 1'requenting this coast believe in the existence of an extra- 



