CHAPTER VII 
ORNITHOLOGICAL AND ENTOMOLOGICAL 
EXPERIENCES IN FIJI 
By Dayton STONER 
In a recently published article wherein Doctor Frank M. Chap- 
man, Curator of the Department of Birds, American Museum of 
Natural History, New York City, discusses the aims and objects 
of that imstitution, he says: ‘‘It is, therefore, the policy of the 
Museum to give its Curators wide field experience, knowing well 
that this will result not only in better collections but in more dis- 
criminating reports upon them.’” 
A somewhat analogous situation prevails at our own University 
in the department of zoology as well as in our other departments 
of natural science. Encouragement and permission are given their 
members to see, collect and study material in the field, both at 
home and abroad, and to participate in trips and expeditions which 
are organized with these objects in view in order that those thus 
engaged may better serve, and that, in turn, others may benefit 
through the agency of this participation. Such a policy had its 
inception at the University years ago and our recent efforts in the 
South Seas afford a good example of the favor in which such en- 
terprises are still held by the university administration. 
Since my own endeavors on the Fiji-New Zealand Expedition 
were almost wholly ornithological and entomological, I shall con- 
fine my remarks largely to these fields of natural science, realizing 
only too well, that a short stay of four weeks in Fiji (June 5 to 
July 3) and one of five weeks in New Zealand (July 7 to August 
15) searcely qualifies one to speak authoritatively on these sub- 
jects. However, one may, even in that short time, acquire at least 
some notion of the bird and insect faunas of the regions under 
consideration and this I shall attempt to set forth in the following 
pages. Mrs. Stoner accompanied me on many field excursions and 
assisted in the collecting, sorting and packing of material. 
The opportunities for observing and collecting more and un- 
1 Natural History, XXII, No. 4,311, (July - August), 1922. 
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