JANUARY. 41 



Only once have I seen a shining cuckoo* in the garden, 

 and then it was a belated specimen. This species is seldom 

 seen in the immediate neighbourhood of Dunedin, though 

 it occurs in the district, and its advent caused quite a 

 flutter of excitement in the family. It was on a fine day 

 in April, one of these soft mild days that often gives a sort 

 of Jndian summer feeling to our late autumn. We were 

 sitting at lunch when I noticed one of these beautifully 

 marked birds moving about in a pear tree just outside the 

 window. Etiquette was forgotten for the time, and we all 

 jumped up and watched our pretty visitor for a few 

 minutes till it flew out of sight. There is no other record 

 of the bird occurring here so late in the season, and I 

 cannot account for it at all, as the specimen was fully 

 plumaged and not a late hatched young one. It comes 

 to this country from Australia about October and leaves as 

 a rule early in January. The migration of birds from 

 Europe to Africa, arid vice versa, and between Asia and 

 Australia, is a mere nothing to the flight involved in 

 the migration of our cuckoos, which must cross at least 

 one thousand miles of ocean at one flight. 



The list of our bird visitors in this month includes 

 chaffinches (which are however, unaccountably scarce 

 now as compared with their former abundance), green- 

 finches, and a stray parakeett or two. These latter were 

 formerly the commonest of our visitors, but now one 

 has to go right away from the busy haunts of men to meet 

 with them. It is more than eight years since the last 

 more-porkij: was heard in the district, but only last summer 

 two of the large white-faced owls spent a night in the 

 trees in the garden and surprised the whole neighbourhood 

 with their calls. In the fields adjoining the garden are 

 numerous skylarks and an occasional native pipit.J! 



The abundance of bird life, especially of introduced 

 species, has very sensibly reduced the amount of insect life, 

 yet the kinds of insects still to be seen are very numerous. 



* Chalcococcyx lucidus. 



t Cyanorhamphus Novce-Zealandice. Sceloglaux albifacies. 

 Ninox NffVts-Zealandicc. || Anthus Nova-Zealandia. 



