miscellanea. 147 



4. Pjsogeessiye Extinction of the Natia^e Eauna in 

 New Zealand. 



The following extract from a letter, from Jolm Webster, Esq.» 

 dated Hokianga, New Zealand, l7tli December, 1863, addressed to 

 Mr. E. L. Layard, of Cax^e Town, relates to a subject already alluded 

 to in this Journal : — 



" The box sent contains the Kiwi's egg, and a few birds'-skins, 

 which may, or may not, be new to you. I am sorry New Zealand 

 is so poor a country for ornithological specimens, otherwise I might 

 have made up a box more worthy of your acceptance. 



It is being remarked by the natives and old settlers that many of 

 the native birds are getting scarcer, and a few varieties have all but 

 disappeared. This has been brought more under my notice since I 

 began collecting for you. Of birds that were formerly common, I 

 have failed in getting even a single specimen. Early navigators and 

 visitors to New Zealand speak with raptures of the melody in early 

 morn, of the birds in the woods. It was so on my first arrival in the 

 country. I can now say, from personal knowledge, that it is a fact 

 that the native birds are rapidly disappearing, and the question is — 

 what is the cause ? 



I think it is owing to the ravages of the common rat. The bush 

 and country is swarming with them ; they are found in the trees, on 

 the ground, by the water, and in the \\ater. Indeed rat-life is 

 rampant at the present moment in New Zealand. Birds' nests 

 are found empty every where, where they ought to have been 

 tenanted, and nests under my own eye have almost invariably been 

 robbed by the vermin. I speak feelingly — the silence of our summer 

 mornings is like a note struck out of natural melody." 



5. Notice oe a Mule Breeding. 



Mr. A. Eonblanque, of the British Consulate at Alexandria, has 

 communicated to Mr. Darwin a notice of a "curious birth" which 

 has lately taken place at Cairo — that of a foal produced by a mule. 

 Mr. Eonblanque says, so great was the excitement at this unheard of 

 event amongst the native population that it produced an official en- 

 quiry — a copy of which, together with a certificated translation, Mr. 



