2 Mathews, Note on Rhipichira phasiana. [ist July 



immature of? How many species have been discovered? 

 Perhaps some of our brother ornithologists can tell us more. 



Our artist has given us an excellent plate, but the wing 

 coverts should be dusky-brown, not grey. 



Mr. D. Le Souef {Emu, iii., p. 54, 1903) has described the 

 nest and eggs of this species. , 



Bird Life on the Kermadec Islands. 

 By Tom Iredale, New Zealand. 



In 1907 an expedition was organized in New Zealand for the 

 purpose of making collections in every branch of natural 

 history, and otherwise observing data of use to any of the 

 sciences, on Raoul or Sunday Island, the chief island of the 

 Kermadec Group. 



This group, situated to the north-east of New Zealand, is 

 politically a part of the Dominion, and biologically is included 

 in the New Zealand region. Its geographical position invited 

 investigation, but its inaccessibility had hitherto defied any who 

 may have cast longing eyes upon it. Though discovered as 

 long ago as 1788, it had remained practically unexplored, 

 and nothing was known of the lower forms of life existing 

 thereon. 



In 1854 Sunday Island was surveyed by H.M.S. Hci^ald, to 

 which vessel was attached John Macgillivray, as naturalist. The 

 botanical collection he made was almost immediately reported 

 upon by Sir J. D. Hooker, and important deductions drawn 

 from it. His collections of the fauna deposited in the British 

 Museum were, however, never worked out, and whatever notes 

 he handed in with them were overlooked, which is a matter for 

 regret, as Macgillivray was a keen bird observer. In or about 

 1870 Dr. Graeffe, a naturalist in the employ of the Godeffroys, 

 visited the island, but records of whatever collections he made, 

 save a few land snails, do not appear to have been published. 



In 1887 the group was annexed to New Zealand, and Mr. T. 

 F. Cheeseman, of the Auckland Museum, accompanied the 

 Government steamer. He made a botanical survey of Sunday 

 Island, and also took notes concerning the birds. At the end 

 of his paper, " On the Flora of the Kermadec Islands," published 

 in the Transactions of the Nezv Zealand Institute for 1887, 

 he added a list of birds, with short notes. In the same 

 periodical for 1890 he published a more exhaustive article, " On 

 the Birds of the Kermadec Islands." This latter was written 

 as a result of further information, with bird skins and eggs, 

 received from the settlers on Sunday Island. About the same 

 time he handed to Captain F. W. Hutton a collection of Petrels 

 for study ; the results were published in the Proceedings of the 



