552 Proceedings. 



of the orange- and blue-wattled crows, with albinos of both 

 species (Glaucopis cinereus and G. wilsonii), a specimen of the 

 very rare New Zealand snipe, from the Auckland Islands ; a 

 godwit (kuaka), a dabchick, and a bell-bird, from the Auck- 

 land Islands ; and a diving-petrel, from Antipodes Island. 



Explaining the exhibits to the Philosophical Society, Sir James 

 Hector said the bell-birds had in the past ten years greatly diminished— 

 probably because of the spread of the humble-bee, which entered into com- 

 petition in obtaining honey from flowers. At the Auckland Islands, how- 

 ever, the bell-bird now existed in large numbers. A peculiar feature about 

 the godwit was that every second year it went to Siberia to do its nesting. 

 He urged that every effort should be made to preserve the New Zealand 

 snipe, which was becoming very rare indeed. This bird, he said, was one 

 of the smartest game-birds that could be got. It retained all the charac- 

 teristics of the English snipe— flew in a zig-zag manner, was difficult to 

 shoot, and afforded capital sport. 



Fourth Meeting : 25th September, 190C. 



Mr. G. V. Hudson, President, in the chair. 



Papers. — 1. " On the Lepidoptera of Mount Ida District,"" 

 by Mr. J. H. Lewis ; communicated by Mr. G. V. Hudson. 

 (Transactions, p. 186.) 



Specimens illustrating the paper were exhibited. 

 Sir James Hector considered this a most useful contribution, which 

 he hoped would be followed by others. 



2. " Early Explorations and Colonisation of Western 

 Canada," by Sir James Hector. 



Abstkact. 



Sir James briefly sketched the early history of Canada, formerly a 

 comparatively insignificant portion of the British possessions in that 

 region, and the adjacent country, millions of square miles of which had 

 been chartered to the Hudson Bay Company, who established a line of 

 small fortified trading- centres, and worked the country solely for its furs. 

 Casual adventurers penetrating this region brought back reports of its 

 vast and fertile plains, its favourable climate, and immense undeveloped 

 wealth. The company, on the other hand, represented it as a desolate 

 and frigid waste, valuable only on account of the wild fur-bearing 

 animals it produced. Agitation for the opening of the country led the 

 Home Government to appoint the Palliser Expedition, which started in 

 1857. The lecturer — then a young man who had just completed his 

 university course— was selected by the University of Edinburgh for the 

 post of naturalist and medical officer to the expedition, and one of his 

 first duties on arriving in Northern America was to nurse his leader 

 through a sharp attack of typhoid. Subsequently, in the occasional 

 absence of the head from the scene of operations, the whole charge and 

 responsibility fell upon Dr. Hector, who had to act many parts— as 

 geologist, naturalist, surveyor, physician, diplomatist (having negotiated 

 a treaty with a native tribe), besides bearing his own share of the " pack " 

 in those parts of the journey where the party carried their belongings 

 and provisions on their backs. 



The expedition started from Lake Superior, on which much of the 



