PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



The first edition of this work was published in 1904. It was 

 much more snccessfiil than Captain Hntton or I, or even the 

 publishers, had anticipated, and a second edition was found to 

 be necessary in the following year, 1905. Captain Hntton was 

 then suffering' from a serious illness. He Avent to England for 

 a change, and was not able to take any part in the work of 

 seeing the second edition through the press. Before he left 

 New Zealand, however, we discussed several alterations to the 

 first edition and decided to make some additions. A copy of 

 the second edition reached him in England on September 19th, 

 1905, and he wrote to me on that date expressing his 

 appreciation of the work. About five weeks later, October 27th, 

 he died at sea on his way back to New Zealand. 



Ver^^ few scientific works, especially in a country with less 

 than a million inhabitants, reach a third edition, and it is 

 gratifying to know that the people of New Zealand by their 

 demand for this book have expressed their appreciation of the 

 efforts Captain Hntton and I made to supply them with 

 scientific and popular information in regard to the animals of 

 their own country. 



In this edition, the third, I have made many alterations. 

 Archdeacon Williams, of Gisborne, has kindly revised the list 

 of Maori names of birds, and, on his advice, I have changed a 

 large number, giving some names that are more generally 

 accepted than those previously assigned to birds in this book. 

 Unfortunately, I could not find space for Archdeacon 

 Williams's complete list of Maori names. He has published an 

 excellent paper on the subject in Tlie Journal of the Polynesian 

 Society for December, 1906, No. 4, volume xv. It supplies all 

 the names the Maoris are known to have applied to native 

 birds. In one case, the bell-bird {Antliornis melanura), he 

 gives no fewer than twenty-six names. 



16 



