51 



worn in the ears on their grand feast-days. It is known to the sealers 

 by the name of the Green Bird of New Zealand. 



" Apteryx Australis. — Kiwi-l(iwi of the New Zealanders. I am 

 told that a second species of Apterya: is to be found on the Middle 

 island, that it stands about three feet high ; it is called by the sealers 

 the Fireraan. Avvare, from your figures and description, that the 

 sexes difFer considerably in size, I pointed this out to my informant ; 

 but he still persisted that there are two species, in confiimation of 

 which opiiiion he added, that he had taken the eggs of the two birds, 

 and found those of one species to be much larger than those of the 

 other. The larger kind are nearly the size of the Emu's ; they are 

 somewhat long in form and blunt at the ends ; their colour is a dirty 

 white. They are deposited in a burrow on a nešt formed of roots 

 and sticks, and a fe\v of the bird's own feathers. 



" ScYTHROPs Nov^ HoLLANDiiE. — I send you the egg of this 

 species, and also the female bird out of which it was taken, after she 

 had received tvvo shots." 



April 27, 1847. 

 Williara Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 The following Communications \vere read to the Meeting : — 



1. Descriptions of thk Eggs of some of the Birds of Chile. 

 By V/illiam Yarrell, Esq., F. L. S, 



From my earliest acąuaintance with the eggs of our British Birds, 

 I was led to consider that this department of natūrai history had not 

 been studied -vifith the attention these beautiful objects deserve ; and 

 the examination of collections of eggs made in India, Australia, North 

 America, and more recently in Chile, have served to confirm my first 

 impression. 



The history of a plant \vould be incomplete if it did not include a 

 descrijition of the leaf, the flower, and the fruit, as these appear in 

 succession. 



Mr. MacLeay has told us in bis ' Horae Entom,,' p. 448, that " as 

 the knowledge of the whole life of an insect mušt make us better 

 acąuainted \vith its nature than a mere description of one of its forms, 

 in the šame proportion ought metamorphosis to outvveigh every other 

 principle of arrangement." 



Of t\vo naturalists •who studied the Lepidoptera of Europe, it has 

 been stated, that " not satisfied with an acąuaintance with the insect 

 in its perfect statė, they exarained it also in the early stages of its 



No. CLXXII. — Proceedings of the Zool. Soc. 



