NATURAL HISTORY NOTES IN NEW ZEALAND. 190 
“‘old. The egg was 5 ins. long, and over 3] ins. in diameter, and 
“weighed 18 ozs. The hatcher (the male bird) would have weighed 
‘about 6 lbs., and the mother about 8 lbs., for I have weighed them 
*“several times, but in this case we did not see the mother at all. . . 
“ At the beginning of his task he is in good condition, but when the 
“ego is nearly hatched he is poor and stupid, while his mate is wide 
“awake and fightable, so that they have just exchanged places since 
“ she laid that egg. . . . The female’s beak is 1 in. longer than the 
“‘ male’s, and has a slight curve near the point, while the male’s has 
“the curve more in the middle, and is about 5 ins. long,” 
Already this narrative of personal acquaintances generally with 
New Zealand wild life has run to great length, when only the fringe 
of Nature’s Wonders has been touched, for only a smattering of the 
knowledge of those wonders has come within my ken, and has been 
embodied in my paper to-night. I have had no reference to any 
work on the subject, save a list of the birds given in Buller’s original 
book (now out of print), a copy of which was years ago kindly lent to 
me. But I had also a large accumulation of yencil notes of a very 
mixed character, upon my finds and acquisitions of not only New Zea- 
land birds, but also of fishes and ferns, lizards and moths, spiders and 
orchids, of the tuatara—the only living representative of ancient 
order of reptiles, bearing a trace of the middle eye, and about midway 
between a lizard, a crocodile, and a turtle; and of my most interest- 
ing and rare find, the “ Peripatus Nove Zealandie,” a remarkable 
link between insects and spiders, which has been very seldom found. 
NOTE.—Sir Walter Buller, K C.M G.. had kindly offered the woodcuts of his original 
work for the purpose of illustrating this paper, and suggested its publication in 
the Colony. When the loan was claimed he wrote me from a sick bed regretting 
his inability to get at his papers in London. Sir Walter died whilst this was in 
the Press. 
RCE Tia, Fe 
