Mutton Birds and other Birds. 



CHAPTER I. 



SANCTUARIES. 



]ROM the date on which the first Moa 

 bone was brought to England, the 

 Avifauna of New Zealand has excited 

 a peculiar interest. There was a ro- 

 mance of science in that paper where, 

 against the advice of friends, Owen, staked his 

 reputation on the interpretation of a single bone ; 

 and more learned papers have perhaps been 

 written about our Kiwis than about any other 

 family of birds in the world. The enormous 

 period of time during which New Zealand has 

 been isolated, has given her birds time for a high 

 degree of specialisation; and by scientific 

 ornithologists our Dominion, small as is its 

 extent, has been considered the most striking and 

 most essential of the six regions into which the 

 bird life of the world has been apportioned. Our 

 birds will fit into no well-ordered groups: our 

 Thrushes are hardly Thrushes, our Crows are 

 hardly Crows, our Starling is hardly a 

 Starling. The trusteeship of these rare 

 creatures is in our hands, and it is worth 



