230 Transactions. — Zoology. 



working at without the aid of such valuable publications as 

 the " Eecords." To those resident in the colonies, opportuni- 

 ties of consulting a full set of, say, the " Zoological Eeview " 

 must be few and far between ; and, even if the opportunity 

 offers, a great deal of time must be consumed in the search for 

 that which is required. Having myself experienced consider- 

 able difficulty in this way whilst working at the study of the 

 remains of the extinct birds of New Zealand, I thought that 

 the references w^hich I had accumulated w^ould, if systematic- 

 ally arranged, form the basis of a bibliography of what has 

 already been written on the subject of the moa. 



I am particular in calling it only a contribution to the 

 subject, as I am well aware that it is practically impossible 

 for a single hand to collect every reference. There will no 

 doubt be many an omission to repair and correction to be 

 made in a future volume ; and I shall be extremely grateful to 

 any correspondent who will assist me in completing the biblio- 

 graphy, and thereby facilitate the labours of future workers 

 in this field. 



It has been suggested to me that I ought to discriminate, 

 and only enter on the list papers and articles of scientific 

 value and worth ; but I take it that this course would totally 

 destroy the value of the work as a bibliography ; and, further, 

 that I am hardly justified in saying that a record is valueless 

 because it seems to me, with our present knowledge of the 

 subject, ridiculous or absurd. It will be a long while yet 

 before the last word on the history of the extinct birds of New 

 Zealand is said, or the various questions settled and eluci- 

 dated. 



I desire, therefore, to record newspaper notices, magazine 

 articles, &c., which may, perhaps, seem trivial. The only 

 references that I feel justified in omitting are those in zoologi- 

 cal text- books and stories professedly fictitious. When the 

 work is nearer completion I desire to arrange the references 

 under various subject-heads. 



To those authors whose writings I have omitted I must 

 tender my apologies, and plead in excuse the discontinuous 

 nature of my work, which has had to be done in odd moments 

 in the intervals of other work and duties ; and also the absence 

 of several important works of reference which should have 

 been consulted. 



I trust, how- ever, that the list will serve as a basis for 

 further records, and I shall be pleased to receive any correc- 

 tions and additions that any one wall kindly forward to me. 



Note. — I have endeavoured as far as I could to give the 

 date of the reading of the paper. In some cases, however, the 

 date is the date of the publication of the volume in which the 

 paper or notice occurs. 



