6 Transactions. — Zoology. 



which should be on the shelf of every ornithologist — he returns 

 to the subject (p. 316) with the following pregnant remarks: 

 " Mention has already been made of the unhappy fate which 

 awaits the surviving members of the New Zealand fauna, and 

 its inevitable end cannot but excite a lively regret in the minds 

 of all ornithologists who care to know how things have grown. 

 This regret is quite apart from all questions of sentiment ; but, 

 just as we lament our ignorance of the species which, in 

 various lands, have been extirpated by our predecessors, so 

 our posterity will want to know much more of the present avi- 

 fauna of New Zealand than we can possibly record, for no one 

 can pretend to predict the scope of investigation which will be 

 required, and required in vain, by naturalists in that future 

 when New Zealand may be one of the great nations of the 

 earth." 



For my own part, I am most anxious that we should escape 

 the reproach of posterity by doing everything in our power to 

 preserve, if not a few living representatives, at any rate a full 

 life-history of these expiring forms ; so I try to make my voice 

 heard, in season and out of season, hoping thereby to stimu- 

 late others to do the same. I am induced to believe that, in 

 the interests of science, I am pursuing the right course. For 

 example, a returned colonist writes me : " At Cambridge I 

 met the genial old Professor Newton, who told me that your 

 sketches of vanishing native birds were the most charming he 

 had ever read." I naturally argue thus : that, if the subject 

 possesses so much attraction for readers at a distance, I shall 

 not weary you by reverting, on every opportunity, to this 

 favourite theme. The great thing is to awaken public interest. 

 And, if I may venture to say so, the subject is yours as much 

 as mine, for it must be borne in mind that an implied duty 

 rests on all the members of such a Society as this to con- 

 tribute their quota to the general stock of human knowledge, 

 and to aid — each one according to his opportunity and ability — 

 in the promotion of such objects as the one I am discussing. 

 It is refreshing to find, in these more enlightened days, that 

 even from the pulpit this moral obligation is enforced, and 

 with no uncertain voice. As an illustration of this, I may 

 remind you of the eloquent sermon preached by the Bishop of 

 Salisbury in St. Paul's Cathedral on the occasion of his visit 

 to Wellington some time ago. Passing out of the beaten 

 track, his Lordship referred to the interesting problems in 

 science that awaited their solution in New Zealand, mention- 

 ing specially the abnormal features in the fauna and fiora. 

 He said he hoped that in the City of Wellington — the centre 

 of activity for the colony — there would be found men of leisure 

 who would " consecrate their lives " to the elucidation of these 

 problems in natural science. He put in, too, a pathetic appeal 



