^°!-J."-1 Reviews. 55 



1907 



The coloured plates are very fine. The author's own appreci- 

 ation of the colourists' work is : — " The admirable manner in 

 which all these plates have been hand-coloured, after the pattern 

 drawn by Mr. Keulemans, by the Misses Dora Louise, Daisy 

 Madeline, and Sylvia Rosamund Bowdler-Sharpe, and Mr. C. 

 Edwards, has given me great satisfaction." Some of the half- 

 tone text illustrations, depicting characteristic New Zealand 

 scenery — "the home" of a particular bird — are also good. 

 " The Last-known Resort of the North Island Robin " {Miro 

 mist rails — Miro after a winter berry), from a photograph by the 

 author's daughter (Mrs. Laura Madocks), with its fern and forest, 

 is suggestive of tropical luxuriance. However, it is hoped, for 

 the sake of ornithology, that the author is incorrect in his title 

 (of picture) and in his assumption of this fast-expiring species, 

 because the bird has been rediscovered by our member, Mr. J. 

 C. M'Lean,* and the editors hope to publish field notes of the 

 same shortly, together with bush illustrations, by Mr. M'Lean. 



The whole work, which is folio size, has been classically 

 printed by Messrs. John Bale, Sons and Danielsson Limited, 

 Great Titchfield-street, London, W. 



The " Supplement " opens with a lengthy (50 pages) and highly 

 argumentative " Introduction " bearing directly on the evolution 

 of the species, &c., followed by " Our Vanishing Forms of Bird 

 Life," " The Passing of Our Forests," &c. The general classifi- 

 cation is arranged according to the system adopted by Dr. 

 Bowdler-Sharpe in his " Hand-List of Birds." As may be 

 expected, the author devotes many pages to the remarkable 

 Kiwis, and has much interesting matter about the giant flight- 

 less Rail — Notornis — of which only four specimens have been 

 captured. Melancholy thoughts occur when one reads about 

 the recently extinct and fast disappearing forms, notably the 

 endemic Quail {Coturnix Jiovce-rjealandics ), the flightless Rail and 

 the Pigeon of Chatham Islands, and the Notornis, already 

 mentioned. 



Whether the Grey or Black Duck (Auas superciliosa) is 

 becoming scarce or not in Australia, it appears still numerous in 

 New Zealand, where, however, it is being gradually supplanted 

 by a superior bird, a cross between this wild Duck and the intro- 

 duced European Mallard {A. boscas). It has also been proved 

 that the progeny of hybrid domestic Rouen and wild Grey 

 Ducks are quite fertile. Regarding the Black Swan, introduced 

 from Australia, partly through the instrumentality of Sir Walter, 

 he writes : — " Now thousands are to be met with in both islands " 

 — a happy result in acclimatisation. 



Amongst the Shags or Cormorants it will be observed that 

 vice-royalty has received dedications twice — P halacrocorax ran- 



* Sec /iniii, vol. vi., p. 35. 



