47(5 Bibliographical Notices. 



of life ; already a number of gigantic flightless birds have gradually 

 succumbed (may be through internal decHne, accelerated by the un- 

 ceasing attacks of men and of a bird of prey twice the size of an 

 eagle), and their only surviving representative, the dwarf race of 

 Apteryx, will probably soon follow. Geographically considered, this 

 fauna may be expected to be composed of forms most aberrant from 

 European types ; and, indeed, this is the case in a great measure ; 

 yet, in spite of essential structural differences, some of the birds 

 most characteristic of New Zealand show, with regard to their 

 liabits and the place they fill in the economy of nature, such 

 striking analogies with our European species, as to remind us at 

 once of our starHngs, thrushes, wrens, t&c. The birds peculiar to 

 New Zealand may be considered its oldest inhabitants ; they are 

 mixed with Polynesian forms and others having a still more ex- 

 tended range ; and the total number amounts to some 150 species. 



It was high time that a complete account of this fauna should be 

 given by a competent naturalist. Some of the most interesting 

 forms have already become almost, if not quite, extinct ; others are 

 fast expiring, or obliged to accommodate themselves to the changed 

 conditions of the country. This change in the fauna is effected by 

 several agencies : — first, by one which, we believe, is universally at 

 work so steadily as to be almost imperceptible, and which, there- 

 fore, is not generally recognized. Every species, as it has its origin 

 and period of fullest development, so it has its period of decline 

 finally leading to its extinction ; and if this be really the case, we 

 may expect that in New Zealand, which is presumed to be the 

 oldest country on the face of the globe, certain of its most highly 

 developed animal forms are disappearing from this innate cause. 

 The second agency is the progress of colonization and culture, 

 which, rapidly spreading over a country not larger than Great 

 Britain, will deprive a part of the species of their retreat and food, 

 and conduce even more effectually to their extirpation than the in- 

 creased number of guns, traps, and cats. The third cause of the 

 change is the introduction of European birds. Sparrows, larks, 

 robins, starlings, thrushes, pheasants, are most easily acclimatized 

 and multiply ; of necessity they will take up a not inconsiderable 

 portion of the range occupied by the native birds, and, readily 

 accommodating themselves to the conditions of culture, will replace 

 those which cannot reconcile themselves to these conditions. We 

 do not say that the majority of the native species will not survive, 

 though in diminished numbers of individuals ; but it is quite proba- 

 ble that some of these survivors will be preserved by accommodatiiig 

 themselves to the new state of things, modifying in a more or less 

 perceptible manner their nidification, food, or some other part of 

 their mode of life : and if such changes should occur, the student of 

 a future generation will find in Dr. Buller's work the means of 

 comparing the birds of his time with those of the past. 



Having made these remarks, in order to show the interest at- 

 tached to the subject, we will state in a few words the plan of the 



