president's address. Ixix, 



their winter quarters witli their young brood. A pair, probably the 

 same, appeared again this year in the same locality. 



A close season in France has been the means of a large accession 

 of small birds, which is quite remarkable. The woods and groves 

 which were silent until recently are now resonant with bird-song. 



A memorandum was drawn up by Lord Onslow, late Governor of 

 New Zealand, for the preservation of native birds in that colony 

 by setting apart two islands for the purpose. One, Hauturn Island, 

 which contains an area of about 10,000 acres, rising in the middle 

 of an elevation of about 2,000 feet, was selected. There are no 

 egg-destroyers in the island, such as the Wika Rail, nor wild pigs, 

 which eat the young of the Mutton bird. 



Our attention naturally turns to the birds which have been 

 extirpated in modern times, of which the Dodo is the most 

 remark^ble They were found in the Mauritius by the Portuguese 

 in the beginning of the 16tli century. Owing to their inability to 

 fly and unwieldiness they soon succumbed. A quantity of Dodo's 

 bones were found in that island in a peat bed and sent to Europe. 

 They have been described in detail by the late Sir Richard Owen. 

 These bones showed nearly every part of the osseous structure of the 

 bird. A bird allied to the Dodo was found in the Island of Bourbon. 

 The Solitaire is also extinct, and another species from the neighbour- 

 ing island of Rodriguez, two species of Parrot, a Dove, a large Coot, 

 and a flightless and long-billed Rail. The Great Auk, allied to the 

 Razor-bill, whose remains are found in the kitchen midden of 

 Denmark and in Caithness, seems to have become extinct since 

 1844, in which year the last tAvo examples known to have lived 

 were taken off the south-west point of Ireland. Ten years before 

 one had been taken alive at the entrance of Waterford Harbour, 

 and in 1841 one was taken near St. Kilda. Far less commonly 

 known is the Labrador Duck, allied to the Eider Duck, which 50 

 years ago was found in summer about the mouth of the St. Laurence, 

 and the coast of Labrador, migrating in the winter to the shores of 

 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, &c. The last knoAvn to have 

 been killed was in Halifax Harbour in 1852. The Spoonbill, the 



