22 Transactions. — Zoology. 



tary appearance, deliberately opened the door and turned it 

 loose. This Pigeon had been brought in by a party of bush- 

 fellers, who reported that it was stunned by becoming 

 entangled in the branches of a falling tree. It seemed quite 

 unhurt, and adapted itself readily to captivity, feeding freely 

 on wheat, cooked potato, and almost anything offered to it. 

 It consorted with a tame Silver-runt, confined with it. The 

 latter laid two eggs, but they proved to be infertile. 



The protection extended to this bird by the Legislature, 

 in having every sixth year made a close season, is a great 

 boon, and will save this fine Wood-pigeon from the extermi- 

 nation which lately threatened it. The fact of a species 

 being very plentiful is no guarantee against its speedy ex- 

 tinction when once the tide of destruction has set in. Of 

 this it would be easy to adduce numberless proofs from all 

 parts of the world. But protection at the right moment may 

 achieve a good deal in the way of arresting the evil. An in- 

 telligent old man of the Ngati-wehiwehi Tribe said to me in 

 February, "The Pigeons are coming back to us. Soon they 

 will be as plentiful as ever. [As vv-e spoke five of them passed 

 in sight, each winging its solitary flight.] Now they are good 

 eating. In January they have the early miro. This lasts 

 through February. " Then they get very fat and sweet. In 

 March the food is scarce. In April the second crop comes on, 

 and then the birds get fat again." Tamihana Whareakaka, 

 who was present, chimed in, "Oh, yes; how fat the Pigeons 

 were in the old days, when we used to go out and trap 

 hundreds of them ! Kakas, too, were plentiful. These are 

 disappearing, because the introduced bees have taken pos- 

 session of the hollow trees. That can't be helped," added he ; 

 " but what is the use of the Government protecting the other 

 birds and imposing fines and punishments if they allow all the 

 woods to be destroyed, for how is the Pigeon to find sub- 

 sistence when the berries are gone?" There is some phi- 

 losophy in Tamihana's words, but I fear it is a poor argument 

 against the requirements of advancing settlement. The only 

 thing to be done is to insist on ample bush reserves being set 

 apart. 



Himantopus leucocephalus, Gould. (White-headed Stilt- 

 plover.) 

 Mr. Eobert A. Wilson, of Bull's, writes me, "Both the 

 Pied Stilt and the Eed-breasted Dottrel nest freely on the 

 river-bank here [Rangitikei] . They build very low, and their 

 nests are often, on that account, destroyed by floods. One 

 pair of Stilts had their nest destroyed three times in suc- 

 cession in one year, but they formed a fourth, and reared a 

 brood." 



