INTRODUCTION 27 



Our parrakeets, although belonging to a genus also found in 

 Polynesia, differ much from those of Australia. It is remark- 

 able that we have no representatives of the cockatoos or the 

 grass-parrakeets, which are common in Australia and Tasmania, 

 although our climate is quite suitable for them. This shows 

 that the Eocene continent was very poorly off for land-birds. 



Waders are more widely spread than the birds of any other 

 order, and some of them are almost cosmopolitan; but even 

 here the isolated character of our fauna is noticeable ; for 

 of thirty-two species, belonging to twenty-four genera, ten 

 species and four genera are found nowhere else. The most 

 marked feature in respect to the order is the presence of the 

 wood hen, a genus of rails quite unable to fly. Species of 

 closely related genera are also found in Lord Howe Island and 

 New Caledonia. Notoruis Jioclistetteri, which resembles both 

 our own swamp hen and the Trihonyx of Tasmania and 

 Australia, is another notable endemic rail. New Zealand is 

 the only country in the world inhabited by two species of 

 stilt-plover, neither of wdiich is found elsewhere. Among the 

 water-birds, cormorants are largely developed, as we possess 

 fifteen species, twelve of which are endemic. No other country 

 in the world possesses so many of these birds. "We have two 

 species of gulls found nowhere else, and this is a peculiarity of 

 which few countries can boast. The most remarkable 

 circumstance connected with our ducks is the presence of a 

 species of FuUgula, a genus found in neither Australia nor 

 Africa, but belonging properly to the northern parts of 

 America, Europe and Asia, although one species occurs in 

 South America. 



New Zealand, together with the neighbouring islands, may be 

 looked upon as the headquarters of the penguins, as all the 

 genera except one are found here. Besides this, the oldest 

 penguin known is from the rocks of New Zealand ; and this 

 country is probably the centre from which these birds 

 dispersed. 



Taking our fauna as a whole, we find that the elements 

 represented are Australian, Melanesian, European, Antarctic, 



