224 EXTERMINATION 
N. productus, seems to have been confined to Phillip Island. The 
last known to have lived, according to information supplied to the 
present writer by Gould, was seen by that gentleman in a cage in 
London about the year 1851. Not many more than a dozen 
specimens are believed to exist in collections. 
In respect of Extermination leading immediately to Extinction, 
the present condition of the New-Zealand Fauna is one that must 
grieve to the utmost every ornithologist who cares for more than 
the stuffed skin of a bird on a shelf. In the Fauna of that 
Region the Class Aves holds the highest rank! (GEOGRAPHICAL 
DISTRIBUTION), and though its mightiest members (Moa) had 
passed away before the settlement of white men, what was left of 
its Avifauna had features of interest unsurpassed by any others. 
It was indeed long before these features were appreciated, and 
then by but few ornithologists, yet no sooner was their value 
recognized than it was found that nearly all of their possessors 
were rapidly expiring, and the destruction of the original Avifauna 
of this important colony, so thriving and so intellectual, is being 
attended by circumstances of extraordinary atrocity. Under the 
evil influence of what was some thirty years ago called “ Accli- 
matization,” not only were all sorts of birds introduced, which 
being of strong species speedily established themselves? with the 
usual effect on the weak aboriginals, but in an evil day Rabbits 
were liberated. These, as was anticipated by zoologists, soon 
became numerous beyond measure and devoured the pasture 
destined for the Sheep, on which so much of the prosperity of the 
country depended. Allowing for a considerable amount of 
exaggeration on the part of the Sheep-owners, no one can doubt 
that the Rabbit-plague has inflicted a serious loss on the colony. 
Yet a remedy may be worse than a disease, and the so-called 
remedy applied in this case has been of a kind that every true 
naturalist knew to be most foolish, namely the importation from 
England and elsewhere and liberation of divers carnivorous Mam- 
mals *—Polecats or Ferrets, Stoats, and Weasels! Two wrongs do 
not make a right even at the Antipodes, and from the most authentic 
reports it seems, as any zoologist of common sense would have 
1 The various reports of an indigenous Mammal, to which some writers have 
attached importance, seem to be all due to misconception-on the part of persons 
who did not know how very like a quadruped a Kiwi or a WEKA can look when 
thick herbage or broken ground hinders a clear view. 
2 Sir Walter Buller has told me that within some miles of the larger towns 
not a single native species of bird is now to be seen, while foreigners abound. 
3 Unhappily when the idea of sending out these predacious creatures was 
first promulgated, it was encouraged by one who passed in England for a great 
naturalist. Well-informed persons knew better, but their warnings were 
slighted. * 
