iv PREFACE. 



tions intimately connected with the capabilities of 

 the country as a home for Europeans. In a time 

 pregnant with the universal desire to search for 

 employment, and to open a new field for exertion, 

 foreign and unoccupied countries, previous to colo- 

 nization, should be explored with a view of making 

 ourselves acquainted with their soil and natural 

 productions. Natural history and the affiliated 

 sciences should, in that case, be merely the help- 

 mates to noble enterprise ; and even more than 

 that they should guide and lead it. 



I can but hope that those who delight in con- 

 templating the arrangements of Nature in distribut- 

 ing her creatures over the different countries will 

 find something satisfactory in these volumes; this 

 is the " Fauna of New Zealand." 



I am indebted for this valuable addition to my 

 work to J. E. Gray, Esq., of the British Museum, 

 who, with the assistance of the celebrated Arctic 

 traveller, Dr. J. Richardson, of Messrs. G. R. Gray, 

 Doubleday, and White, has described the animals 

 at present at hand, and, with the descriptions of 

 former naturalists and travellers, has made the 

 enumeration of the animals which are found in 

 New Zealand as complete as possible. I express 

 here my high gratitude to J. E. Gray, Esq., as 

 well as to the gentlemen I have mentioned, for a 

 labour which was as arduous, as no doubt it will 

 be useful to future travellers. 



ERNEST DIEFFENBACH. 



London, November^ 1842. 





