6o From Magazines, S^c. [mt^Xiv 



{Ptiffinus tennirostris) are also exceedingly interesting, and the 

 reader can contrast a " rookery " on Lord Howe Island in a 

 beautiful palm-glade, where the interlacing foliage excludes the 

 sun's rays, with a " rookery " in the open on some grassy island 

 in Bass Strait. Of interest, too, is his chapter on the snow-white 

 Tern {Gygis alba), that lays its single egg on the bare bark or 

 knot-hole of the limb of a tree. 



Six excellent photo.-reproductions of nests and eggs accom- 

 pany the article. 



New Zealand Bird Notes. — Interesting notes on New Zealand 

 bird-life may always be looked for in the Nature Study column which 

 Mr. James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S., conducts for the LytteUon 

 Times. In a recent issue Mr. Drummond quotes extensively from 

 a letter written by Mr. P. J. O' Regan regarding a visit to the Inan- 

 gahua Valley, West Coast. " It is absolutely certain,": writes Mr. 

 O' Regan, " that our ground birds will disappear in a few years 

 unless we have them placed in sanctuaries, preferably some islands 

 adjacent to New Zealand. Once, when I was a member of Parlia- 

 ment, I tried to have a clause inserted in the Animals Protection 

 Act, making it a punishable offence to introduce cats, weasels, and 

 similar animals on to any island near the New Zealand coast, but 

 my attempt failed, I don't know why. It is certain that something 

 should be done in earnest before it is too late. I do not know if 

 there are any ground birds on the Auckland and other southern 

 islands ; if not, you ought to get up an agitation to have Wekas, 

 Kiwis, and other birds placed there." 



" On this occasion," says Mr. Drummond, " Mr. O'Regan spent 

 three weeks in the Inangahua Valley. He heard a Kiwi only three 

 times, and he did not either see or hear a Weka once. Yet these 

 birds, until quite recently, were as plentiful as in the days of the 

 first settlers. Everybody with whom he discussed the position told 

 him that the Weka had disappeared as completely as if the country- 

 side had been swept by fire. There is no doubt in his mind as to 

 the cause of this extermination. He blames the stoats and weasels, 

 which are plentiful in all places, from proximity of settlement to 

 the virgin bush, and which destroy the eggs and young birds. Rivers 

 are not often insuperable obstacles to the pests, and no locality 

 seems to be safe from their ravages. A settler told him that two 

 years ago a weasel's nest, found in the Motupiko Valley, contained 

 no fewer than 30 young birds — Tuis, Robins, Sparrows, Tomtits, 

 Parrakeets, and others. Things that Mr. O'Regan saw and heard 

 of during his holiday lead him to dissent from Mr. Mackenzie's 

 statement that the Weka is able to fight the stoat and weasel ; 

 he believes that no native bird is immune from the danger the 

 presence of these creatures implies. 



" In recent years, in all parts of the West Coast, there has been 

 a notable decrease in the numbers of the Pigeons and the Kakas, 

 and Mr. O'Regan is more firmly convinced than ever tliat tliis has 



