CHAP. XIII.] THE AUSTRALIAN REGION. 453 
part of Polynesia, distances of more than 1,000 miles! These 
facts seem, however, to have been accepted on insufficient evidence 
and to be in themselves extremely improbable. It is observed 
that the cuckoos appear annually in certain districts and again 
disappear ; but their course does not seem to have been traced, 
still less have they ever been actually seen arriving or departing 
across the ocean. In a country which has still such wide tracts 
of unsettled land, it is very possible that the birds in question 
may only move from one part of the islands to another. 
Islets of the New Zealand Sub-region. 
We will here notice the smaller islands belonging to the sub- 
region, as it is chiefly their birds that possess any interest. 
Norfolk Island.—The land-birds recorded from this island 
amount to 15 species, of which 8 are Australian, viz.: Climac- 
teris scandens, Symmorphus leucopygius, Zosterops tenuirostris and 
Z. albogularis, Halcyon sanctus, Platycercus pennanti, Carpophaga 
spadicea, Phapspicata and P. chalcoptera. Of the peculiar 
species three belong to Australian genera ; Petroica, Gerygone, and 
Rhipidura ; one to a cosmopolitan genus, Turdus. So far the 
affinity seems to be all Australian, and there remain only three 
birds which ally this island to New Zealand,—WNestor productus, 
Cyanoramphus rayneri, and Notornis alba. The former inhabited 
the small Phillip Island (close to Norfolk Island) but is now extinct. 
Being a typical New Zealand genus, quite incapable of flying 
across the sea, its presence necessitates some former connexion 
between the two islands, and it is therefore perhaps of more 
weight than all the Australian genera and species, which are birds 
capable of long flights. The Cyanoramphus is allied to a New 
Zealand broad-tailed parroquet. The Notornis alba is extinct, 
but two specimens exist in museums, and it is even a stronger 
case than the Nestor, as showing a former approximation or union 
of this island with New Zealand. A beautiful figure of this 
bird is given in the bis for 1873. 
Lord Howe's Island—This small island, situated half-way 
between Australia and Norfolk Island, is interesting, as contain- 
ing a peculiar species of the New Zealand genus Ocydremus, or 
