iv PREFACE. 
New Zealand Fauna through a critical examination of the 
rich materials in the Collection of the British Museum, 
which the Author has been allowed to make specially for this 
work by Dr. Giinther, V.P.R.S., Keeper of the Zoological 
Department. 
The Crustacea are not of the same economic importance in 
New Zealand as in many other countries, where the conditions 
are apparently not more favorable for the development of a 
variety of forms adapted for the food of man. Thus, con- 
sidering the character of the coast, with its deep water-inlets, 
and sheltering islands covered with kelp and other sea-weeds, 
it is remarkable that only one, (or perhaps two), species of 
marine cray-fish, (Palinurus), reach a sufficient size to be 
worth catching; the crab, (Cancer nove-zealandie), and 
prawns, (Palaemon), indigenous to the Colony, not being 
used as articles of food. These large cray-fish, called by the 
natives Koura, are, however, extremely abundant at some 
seasons, and largely sold in the markets. Their capture is 
effected by round hand nets, baited and hauled up rapidly 
from time to time, or by the ordinary lobster-pots. The only 
other Crustacean used as food is the small fresh-water cray- 
fish, also called Kowra in Maori, (Paranephrops planifrons), 
which abounds in all streams and lakes, but especially in the 
lakes of the hot spring district of the North Island, where 
it forms a chief part of the food of the natives. They are 
captured by sinking large fascines of brushwood, enclosing 
bait, to attract the cray-fish ; which, becoming entrapped by 
the twigs, are hauled up to the surface in enormous numbers. 
JAMES HECTOR. 
Lonpon, 6th April, 1876. 
