542 Mr. J. C. McLean on some 
(Turdus merula) were noticed at the end of September in 
bush which had been felled some months before ; while a 
Chaffinch (Fringilla celebs) stayed about my camp for three 
or four days just after July’s snowfall. 
The late Sir Walter Buller predicted the approaching 
extinction of many of our birds, and that some twenty years 
ago. Still I feel certain that many of the birds he mentioned 
are by no means rare in the localities best suited to them, 
and where their natural food exists, in much of our untouched 
high forest country. But it is not of the slightest use 
looking for them in the patches of bush remaining im the 
settled districts—cut off as they are from the larger areas— 
where the undergrowth, so necessary to the well-being of 
many of our bush-birds, has been destroyed by stock. Here, 
with but one or two exceptions, the bush is peopled by an 
alarming number of exotic birds; but in the high virgin 
forest the observer will still find most of our indigenous 
species, while those that are imported are absent. 
I now close these notes, which give but a poor idea of one 
factor in the extermination of our birds, with a hope that 
others may be induced to investigate the remaining forests 
of the Colony (particularly those of the North Island) and 
so help to bring home the fact that some of the New 
Zealand bush is, at present, by no. means so destitute of 
native avian life as we have hitherto supposed. We can 
easily forecast its future. 
APPENDIX. 
On the Species of the Genus Pseudogery gone. 
By W. R. Oeitviz-Grant. 
Mr. McLean has asked me to look over his interesting 
notes on the habits of certain species of birds found in the 
North Island of New Zealand and to verify the identification 
of those specimens about which he was doubtful. I have 
done this with pleasure, and take the opportunity of adding 
the following remarks. 
Mr. McLean has especially directed my attention to a 
