740 Proceedings. 



Waitaki was in his office. He asked him if he had been down to the 

 Museum to see the takahe. The Maori said he had not heard of its having 

 been got. but he had seen one long ago. He described it as a bird like 

 the pukeko, but not so long in the legs and neck, and was bigger, and said 

 it lived in holes under trees in the bush, like the kakapo. but went erect 

 into the holes. He had, he said, seen only one dead one, and that was 

 at Aparima over fifty years ago, when the local natives told him there 

 were plenty between Preservation Inlft and the Waiau, and that they 

 went in patches. On the map the old IMaori indicated the locality re- 

 ferred to as between Lake Hauroto and Preservation Inlet. That portion 

 of the country was probably less explored than any other part of New 

 Zealand, so that if there were any adventurous spirits who wanted to go 

 out and hunt the takahe there was a field for them. 



Mr. G. M. Thomsou hoped no one would be led into looking for the 

 takahe in the country the Chairman referred to. There was a very 

 limited extent of country ; the ground was not high, and it was not more 

 suitable than other places. He had been over the ground, and it had 

 been run over by sheep some years ago. It was known to shepherds six- 

 teen years ago. 



Mr. Wilson had listened to what had been said with the greatest pos- 

 sible interest. It seemed to h.im that a most practical suggestion had 

 been made by Mr. Hamilton— that was, to preserve the life of these birds. 

 The thing that impressed him most was this fact : that this particular 

 bird was not old. Some one mentioned to him that four years was about 

 its age. He did not really know whether it was younger or older than 

 that. The point was tliat within quite a year or two ago this creature 

 must have been breeding in the mountains ; and it was very probable 

 that there was a considerable number of them there still. With the 

 introduction of vermin, such as weasels and stoats, he thought the life 

 of the bird could not be prolonged very much ; and if any effort could be 

 made to secure living specimens, and place them on the island that 

 had bfen set aside for birds, he thought it would be a boon to the whole 

 scientific world. It appeared to him that this was not likely to be done 

 by those going out on camping expeditions. The bird could only be got 

 in winter, when it was driven down from the higher to the lower lands ; 

 and that was the time that proper expeditions should be sent out to beat 

 the whole country ; and he had no doubt that good results would ensue. 

 He would like to ask Dr. Benham what the specimen exhibited had in its 

 gizzard. 



Dr. Benham said the bird's gizzard contained a large quantity of 

 small stones and some cvlindrical kind of grass cut up into pieces from 

 Jin. to fin. in length. He had preserved some of the grass, and would 

 be glad to hand it over to a botanist to make out what kind of grass 

 it was. 



I 



Sixth Meeting : iVth October, 1898. 

 Dr. T. M. Hocken in the chair. 



Netu Member. — Dr. Fulton, Dunediu. 



Paioers.—l. " On the Study of Natural History," bvG. M. 

 Thomson. 



Abstract. 



One of the objects for which this Institute exists is to promote the 

 study of natural history, by which I take it is meant not the merely 

 biological side of the question, but the wider aspect, which includes all 



