12 Transactions. — Zoology. 



At any rate, they were a collection of New Zealand birds 

 made about 1845 by a Captain Stanley, E.N. Though bedded 

 in the dust of fifty years, neither damp nor moth had reached 

 them, and they are all good sound skins in perfect order. 

 There are some half-dozen Sceloglaux albifacies, plenty of 

 Morepork, the three FalconidcB, no Nestor notabilis, no Quail, 

 no Turnarjra hectori, plenty of the other Turnagra, several 

 Stitch-birds (male and female), both Miros, several Saddle- 

 backs, but only one species of Glaiocojns, Orthonyx albicilla, 

 0. ochrocephala, Gerthiparus, plenty of Wekas, ]31ack Stilt, 

 no Thinornis or AnarhyncJms. He had evidently not visited 

 the Chathams. But the collection shows how plentiful many 

 of the perishing or perished species were fifty years ago. Did 

 I tell you I saw living, in good health, in a conservatory in 

 Norfolk, a specimen of Sceloglaux, brought Home by a son of 

 Sir Thomas Fellows, at whose place I saw it ? " 



Glaucopis wilsoni, Bonap. (Blue- wattled Crow.) 



A perfect albino of this species, obtained in the Wairarapa 

 Valley, has the vi'hole of the plumage pure white, with a tinge 

 of cream-colour on the under-parts of the body ; bill and feet 

 horn-coloured ; wattles flesh-colour. 



Creadion carunculatus, Gmelin. (The Saddle-back.) 



It is indeed singular how this species, so abundant in our 

 woods thirty or forty years ago, has, without any apparent 

 cause, so completely disappeared from the North Island. It 

 still exists, but in sadly diminished numbers, in the South 

 Island ; so also does Creadion cinerezcs. During two visits to 

 the West Coast Sounds I was only able to obtain one specimen 

 of each species. I sought in vain for skins at the various 

 dealers' shops I visited. I believe the current price now is a 

 guinea, and in a few years' time it will be impossible to obtain 

 specimens at any price. 



Speaking on the subject to old Ihaka, of Ngatiwehiwehi, he 

 said, "Oh, yes; when I was a young man the woods about 

 here [Manukau] were swarming with these birds ; also with 

 Kotihe, the Whiowhio, the Pitoitoi, and the Popokatea. Now 

 they are all gone — as completely as the moa ! Soon also will 

 my race vanish from the land, and the white man, with his 

 sheep and his cattle and his birds, will occupy the country ! " 

 This was Ihaka's simple way of formulating the doctrine of 

 the survival of the fittest. 



Myiomoira macrocephala, Gmelin. (South Island Tomtit.) 



In a thick clump of Olearia rotundifolia, at Stewart Island, 

 I saw a lovely albino of this species. I brought it down with 

 a small charge of dust-shot, but unfortunately lost it in the 



