FEBRUARY. 53 



in some conspicuous place for a few days before taking 

 their final flight. 



The cuckoos are the most familiar examples of migra- 

 tory birds, the long-tailed species coming to these islands 

 from its winter home in the Pacific Islands, while the 

 shining cuckoo migrates between New Zealand and 

 Australia or perhaps New Guinea. The long - tailed 

 cuckoo usually leaves New Zealand for its northern 

 habitat during this month of February, being very seldom 

 heard later ; while the shining cuckoo is considerably 

 earlier. 



Besides the cuckoos, there cire numerous kinds, prin- 

 cipally of shore birds plovers, sandpipers, snipes, 

 godwit, curlews, and allied forms which are probably 

 all migratory. They differ, however, from the former 

 in one important particular, namely, that whereas the 

 cuckoos come here to breed and to spend their summer, 

 the others mostly visit these shores to avoid the northern 

 winter, returning in some well authenticated cases- to 

 the lakes and tundras of Siberia and other far north 

 regions to spend their summer there. 



D\vellers in town have not much chance of watching 

 and recording the habits of birds, but those who live in 

 country districts and by the seaside have frequent oppor- 

 tunity, and if their observation is aided by a good field- 

 glass it is wonderful what an amount of knowledge they 

 can acquire about their feathered visitors. 



II. 



February is a month of ripening fruits and seeds, and 

 although in many instances this phase of plant life seems 

 to have little to attract the naturalist, yet to the eye that 

 looks below the surface of things there is as much to 

 wonder at and admire in autumn as in any other season of 

 the year. Perhaps at no other time is the fact of the 

 struggle for existence among plants brought home more 

 forcibly to the observant mind. The main object of 

 existence among all organisms seems to be to reproduce 



