NATURAL HISTORY NOTES IN NEW ZEALAND, 188 
There are two representatives of the Coryipn#a—the blue-wattled 
and the yellow-wattled crow (GLAUcoPiIs WILSONI and G, CINEREA) 
both nearly extinct, though a few specimens still exist in the ranges 
of Marlborough, and also in the North Island. 
Next I come to a beautiful tenant of the bush, the New Zealand 
pigeon (CarpopHaca Nov ZEALANDI#). It is nearly twice the size 
of the English wood pigeon, and has a plumage of the most lovely 
gray and bronze, with a white breast and underparts. The legs and 
beak are red. Its tameness is shocking, and would most certainly 
have led to its early extermination but for protective laws. I have 
repeatedly, before its protection, let me say, shot one out of a tawa 
tree (Popocarpus) whilst others in the same tree have awaited their 
fate. Ata certain season, after feeding on the drupes of the tawa, 
the flesh of the pigeon savours of turpentine, but in the early Winter 
it is in splendid condition for the table. Its winter food consists of 
leaves, and I have frequently seen it feeding on the leaves of the 
weeping willow within a yard or two of my reach. This willow, 
in New Zealand, being in leaf all the year round, with the exception 
of about six weeks, affords a tender and succulent food for the pigeon 
when its condition is poor. The characteristic whistling of the 
wing during flight is almost the only guide to the tree where the 
birds are feeding. 
And now, although I am reluctant to leave them, I do not 
intend to touch upon the fifty-one sea birds enumerated by Buller. 
The gulls, the terns, albatros, petrel, shearwater, gannet, the half 
dozen distinct species of sbag, the interesting penguins, and the 
remarkable mutton birds of Stuart’s Island, would prove more than 
enough subjects for a long paper. But I will conclude with a refer- 
ence to those most wonderful of living birds—the Apteryxes. Buller 
gives four species :— 
APTERYX MANTELLI- - N. Island Kiwi. 
A, AUSTRALIS) - S. Island _,, 
A. OWENI - Little Grey ,, 
A. HAASTII - Large Grey ,, 
