32 Captain F. W. Hutton on the Geographical 



lowed by a long insular period ending in another continent 

 still disconnected from Australia and South America, which 

 continent again sank and New Zealand assumed somewhat of 

 its present form. 



Passing now to the Carinate division of birds, the first thing 

 that strikes us is the fragmentary nature of this' part of our 

 avifauna (if we exclude the Grallse and web-footed birds), 

 thus strongly contrasting with the Struthious division. 



Of the first six orders we possess (excluding the Chatham 

 and Auckland Islands) forty-five species, thirty of which are 

 endemic. These have been referred to thirty-one genera^ ten 

 of which are found nowhere else ; and these thirty-one genera 

 belong to twenty families, one of which {Stringopidce) is pecu- 

 liar to New Zealand. Two families only, the honey-eaters 

 {Meliphagidce) and the starlings [Sturnidce)^ contain more than 

 two genera. The first shows affinity to Australia; but it 

 must be remarked that out of the four species of this family, 

 belonging to four different genera, one genus only [Zosterops) 

 is found in Australia, and the little bird (the " white-eye ") 

 that belongs to this genus is known to be quite a recent arrival 

 in this country. The Sturnida3, on the other hand, show an 

 affinity with Polynesia ; for one species only ( Calornis metal- 

 licus) of this family is found in the north of Australia and in 

 New Guinea. It should, however, be noticed that three other 

 species are found in the latter island. In this family also our 

 three species belong to three different genera, two of which 

 ( Greadion and Heteralocha) are found nowhere else, while the 

 other [Aplonis) is very characteristic of Polynesia ; and Aplonis 

 caledonicuSj which is said to have been found in New Zealand, 

 occurs also in Norfolk Island and New Caledonia. 



It is remarkable that our two owls should both be peculiar 

 to New Zealand, and that one of them {Scehglaux alhifacies) 

 should belong to a genus not found elsewhere ; for the owls are 

 usually widely spread birds, more so, indeed, than the hawks. 

 It is also worthy of notice that Strix delicatula^ which extends 

 its range over most of the Pacific islands and Australia, should 

 be absent from New Zealand. 



Our parrots present several points of interest. The kakapo 

 {Stnngops hahroptilus) is found nowhere else; the genus 

 Nestor extends only to Norfolk Island, while our perroquets, 

 although belonging to a genus {Platycercus) equally plentiful 

 both in Australia and Polynesia, show a greater affinity to the 

 latter, one species (P. novce-zealandice) ranging not only to 

 Norfolk Island, but also to New Caledonia. It is remarkable 

 that we have no representatives of the cockatoos and grass- 

 perroquets so common in Australia and Tasmania ; for our own 



