358 Transactions. 



New Museums, Cambridge, to whom I had entrusted them for identifica- 

 tion, has with his usual generosity and kindness furnished me with the 

 following notes as the result of his examination : — 



" One of the ticks is Haemaphy sails leachi Audouin, and the others 

 Hyalomma aegyptium (Linn.). The result is surprising . . . neither of 

 them is a true Australasian tick, but H. leachi has been in Australia a long- 

 time. H. aegyptium, however, we thought had only recently reached there 

 from Africa. Both ticks are common in India. . . . Was the bird by 

 any chance kept alive in some aviary there before dying and being 

 preserved ? ... If it acquired the ticks in its native habitat we shall 

 have to revise our views as to the quite recent introduction of these species 

 into Australasia." 



Fortunately, full and conclusive details bearing upon the origin and 

 history of this identical huia's skin are available. The Indian theory we 

 have to dismiss, for the skin formed one of the originals in a series of 

 specimens collected jointly by Sir Walter L. Buller and Captain Mair on 

 the Patitapu Range (some twenty miles from Masterton) on the 9th October, 

 1883, as recorded by Buller in his Supplement to the Birds of New Zealand. 

 Sixteen specimens were then secured, and any doubt as to its being a New- 

 Zealand-killed example may safely be set aside as invalid. 



Another theory, however, strongly favouring the Indian origin of these 

 parasites, may be traced directly to a period contemporary with the intro- 

 duction of the mina (Acridotheres tristis) into New Zealand in the year 1875, 

 and if the facts I have collected may be accepted as correct the introduc- 

 tion of the ticks Haemaphysalis leachi and Hyalomma aegyptium would 

 likewise date approximately from that period. The strongest evidence we 

 possess for supposing that the Indian mina acts as a host for both of these 

 ticks is based upon the occurrence of examples of Hyalomma aegyptium in 

 the larval phase upon a female of this bird from Burma, and eggs and an 

 adult of Haemaphysalis leachi found upon a male shot in the Calcutta 

 Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, the remote probability of ever again 

 meeting with the huia in a living state does not tend to assist in the success- 

 ful prosecution of these inquiries ; I am, however, awaiting the result of 

 an examination of specimens of the mina living in New Zealand, which 

 friends in Wellington and Hawke's Bay are kindly instituting on my behalf. 

 Evidence as to the most probable means by which these ticks were trans- 

 mitted to the huia may be gathered from the related experiences of early 

 observers of the invasion by the mina of the particular areas of country 

 comprising the huia's only known habitat in New Zealand. The aggressive- 

 ness of the imported foreigner led to many rival conflicts, during which a 

 ready means of infection must have occurred. More retiring in its nature, 

 the huia must have suffered severe and possibly fatal punishment from 

 these attacks. Of this the late Mr. Taylor White was a frequent observer 

 on his estate at Wimbledon, Patangata, Hawke's Bay, where the huia some 

 twenty years ago was not uncommon. 



Instances are known in which the pugnacious mina has been a leading 

 factor in expatriating certain of the endemic bird fauna of many of the 

 oceanic islands into which it has been introduced. For instance, Henry 

 Palmer, when collecting in the Sandwich Islands, records in his diary how 

 this species is " very numerous and very harmful to the native birds " ; 

 and, again, MM. Alphonse Milne-Edwards and E. Oustalet attributed the 

 extinction of the native starling (Fregilupus varius) in Bourbon to the mina 

 introduced by Poivre in 1755. 



