ANSERIFORMES 129 



seen the following year, but with no young ones, and there the 

 record ceases 1 . 



Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) 



The only attempt to introduce this species was made in 1897, 

 when the Wellington Society, in conjunction with the Canterbury, 

 Nelson and other societies, had a shipment made in London; but 

 all died on the way out. 



Pointed-tailed Grouse (Pedicecetus columbianus) 



The Auckland Society introduced 22 from Utah in 1876, and 

 they were liberated at Piako. There is no further record concerning 

 them. 



Family RALLID;E 



Australian Coot ; Murray Coot (Fulica australis) 



The Auckland Society introduced two in 1869, but it is not stated 

 what was done with them. 



Sir Walter Buller in the Supplement to The Birds of New Zealand 

 (p. 75), describes this as an addition to the fauna, as follows: 



I have to add to the list of New Zealand birds the Australian Coot, a 

 specimen of which was killed in July, 1889, at Lake Waihoia in Otago. 

 There is no record of this species having been brought alive from Australia, 

 and, even if it had been, it is difficult to see how it could have reached 

 that remote district. 



The species is evidently an occasional visitant from Australia. A 

 second specimen was taken at Kaitangata in May, 1919, and a third 

 at Mataura Island in July, 1919. 



1 In a book of newspaper cuttings belonging to the late Mr A. M. Johnson of 

 Opawa, I found a paragraph taken probably from some Christchurch paper. It is 

 without date, but from the date of some of the adjoining paragraphs, it was probably 

 about 1 87 1 . I reproduce the paragraph, as it is interesting in this connection : " In 

 a recent issue we republished from the Argus a paragraph stating that some grouse 

 had been successfully brought out from Norway by a Mr Graff, who purposes 

 bringing them on to Otago. A correspondent of the Hobart Town Mercury writes 

 on the subject as follows : ' Mr Jalmar Graff, a young engineer, who has arrived by 

 the emigrant ship ' Eugine,' has brought with him from his native place, Frederick- 

 shald, in Norway, two pairs of black grouse, a game bird better known to Englishmen 

 as the black cock or moorfowl of the Highlands of Scotland. Because of this bird's 

 peculiar and solitary habits of life, and the fact that it feeds almost entirely on 

 heather, berries and such like food, no attempt had hitherto been made to remove 

 them alive to any distance from their mountain home, much less across the ocean. 

 The grouse were taken as eggs in the wood, and hatched by a common hen. After- 

 wards they were brought into a cage without a bottom, and every day this was moved 

 on the grass. At first they were fed on ants' eggs, bilberries and red whortleberries, 

 latterly or barley, herbage and birchen-nobs. On the voyage (5 months) they had 

 barley, peas, maize and cabbage. No one else has, to my knowledge, succeeded 

 in hatching and rearing grouse in Norway, and I believe this is the first successful 

 experiment."' I may add that these birds never came to Otago. 



