62 From Magazines, cS-c. [isf'juiy 



eyes, apparently, made their appearance on the Chatham Islands 

 about the same time as they came from Australia to New Zealand. 

 Mr. A. Shand, who has lived on the islands lor 55 years, states that 

 he saw these birds for the first time about a year after his arrival. 

 They were strangers to the Chatham Islands Maoris, who were 

 greatly interested in the new arrivals. The Hauhau prisoners 

 from Poverty Bay, who were placed in custody on the islands in 

 1868, caught large numbers of White-eyes for food. The favourite 

 method was by the use of eel baskets. These baskets are made with 

 a very narrow opening, arranged half-way down the length of the 

 basket, the reeds sloping up from one end to the entrance. The 

 birds, like the eels, entered the baskets to get the bait, but could 

 not find the end of the entrance again, and were captured." 



A Collection of Sub-fossil Bird and Animal Remains 

 FROM King Island, Bass Strait.— In the Memoirs of the 

 National Museum, Melbourne, No. 3 (February, 1910), Prof. 

 Baldwin Spencer, C.M.G., and Mr. J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S., have 

 collated some interesting material concerning the species of 

 Emu once inhabiting King Island, but now extinct. With the 

 assistance of a local resident, Mr. Kershaw, in November, 1908, 

 and again in January, 1909, collected a large number of vertebrate 

 remains among the sand-dunes of South Point. These 

 included many Emu bones. The writers are further indebted 

 to the Tasmanian Museum authorities for specimens, and the 

 whole collection under notice comprises : — 



1. Sixty-four femora. 



2. Forty-one tibio-tarsi. 



3. Seventy tarso-metatarsi. 



4. Four pelves of which the total length can be measured, and 



parts of sixteen others. 



5. Parts of six skulls. 



6. One pectoral arch. 



7. Portions of three sterna. 



8. Fourteen fibular. 



9. Ribs. 



10. Vertebral bodies. 



1 1. Toe bones. 



These remains were chiefly distributed over the sand-dunes on 

 the extreme southern portion of the island. The area covers 

 some 300 acres in extent, and the sand is constantly moving 

 and sifting out the bones, which then are to be picked up in the 

 troughs. Wallaby remains are the most numerous, but mixed 

 up with them are parts of Emus, wombats, and dasyures, in a 

 fair state of preservation, with here and there portions of 

 skeletons of both seals and sheep (these latter are apparently 

 later additions). 



