I goo 



■J From Magazines, &c. i6q 



precipitous clififs were met and overcome with true American 

 ingenuity and energy, and plenty of sea-bird life was found to 

 reward the enthusiastic naturalists. " At the last gleam of day- 

 light, the Petrels 5\vept in upon the island like a swarm of bats. 

 Those in the burrows came chittering out to meet them. The 

 ground beneath seemed full of squeakings and the air of soft 

 twitterings and whistlings, until it felt uncanny. We frequently 

 felt the breath of swift wings, but it was all like a phantasy, for 

 not a bird could be seen, not even a shadow. How in the world 

 a Petrel could find his own home and his mate in a whole acre 

 of nesting-holes, hidden all about in the grass, and in the 

 darkness of the night, is more than I could understand." At 

 once one thinks of a companion picture — the nightly returning of 

 the Mutton-Birds to the lonely islands in Bass Strait. 



Kiwis. — Dealing with additions to the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens, The Zoologist for July says : — -" The important addition 

 to the collection of birds is a series of 1 1 Kiwis, representing 

 the North Island race of the original species — namely, Apteryx 

 australis inantelli, or Mantell's Kiwi. The Society has to 

 thank Lord Ranfurly, the Government of New Zealand, and Mr. 

 H. C. Wilkie, F.Z.S., for the donation, and the latter also for his 

 great care of the birds upon the long voyage home. It is certain 

 that no such series of Kiwis has ever previously been exhibited 

 in any European menagerie. Antipodean birds usually do well 

 in England. Hence it is to be hoped that this morphologically 

 isolated type will be for many years represented in the Gardens." 

 An exceedingly interesting notice also appears in The Avicul- 

 tural Magazine (Aug.) anent the introduction of these Kiwis. 

 The writer (" D. S.-S.") truly states very little is known of the 

 nesting habits of these remarkable birds. The period of incuba- 

 tion is also quite unknown. 



* * * 



A New Grass-Finch. — From TJie Proceedings of the LitDiean 

 Society of N.S.W. (1905, part i, page loi), is taken the 

 following: — "Mr. North exhibited a specimen of Grass-Finch 

 from the Northern Territory of South Australia which he had 

 separated from PoepJiila acuticaitda, Gould, under the name of 

 Poephila aurantiirostris. Some time ago he had found that it 

 had been previously described by Dr. O. Heinroth* from living 

 examples in the Berlin Zoological Gardens, under the name of 

 Poephila hecki, but this was the first opportunity he had had of 

 bringing it under the notice of members of the Society. P. 

 aurantiirostris, North, thus becomes a synonym of Poephila 



* Orniiholog. Moiiatsb. Jaliig., viii., p. 22 (1900). 



