Tue Zootocist—Jung, 1872. * 3081 
year she had acquired the full adult plumage, except that the throat and 
spots on the sides were not so light as in more mature examples. 
The legs had changed to a pale greenish yellow, and the irides from 
lustrous black to a dark brown colour, the cere retaining its pale blue tint, 
but with indications of a change to yellow. After two months absence I 
again saw the bird, and noticed that the lores were becoming tinged with 
yellow, while the colour of the legs had deepened. Unfortunately, at this 
stage she was found dead on the floor of the aviary, and on dissection, I 
found in the cavity of the back an amazing number of parasitical worms, 
many of them measuring from six to eight inches in length.”"—P. 8. 
Of Spiloglaux Novex-Zealandiz, the New Zealand owl, or more- 
pork of the colonists, the ruru, koukou and peho of the natives, we 
have the following information. 
“The Hon. Mr. Stafford, who has for many years interested himself in the 
introduction and acclimitization of useful birds, has also given evidence 
against the more-pork on this charge, for he has assured me that on one 
occasion, having turned out a large number of insectivorous birds in his 
grounds at Wellington, an unusual number of owls sought harbour there, 
and preyed on the little immigrants till scarcely a single one remained. For 
a considerable time, however, it was doubted whether the more-pork was 
destructive to acclimatized birds, and a lengthy controversy on the subject 
appeared in the Auckland newspaper. The careful observations of Mr. 
Brighton, the curator of the local Acclimatization Society, at length placed 
the matter beyond all discussion. Frequently he had to forego his night's 
rest in order to watch the aviaries, and during a period of only a few months 
he shot no less than fourteen of these birds. Some of these were surprised 
in the act of attacking the aviaries, and all of them in the immediate vicinity. 
He repeatedly found the dead and lacerated bodies of skylarks and 
chaffinches lying on the wooden ledge just inside the eave of the wire 
roofing, and the abundance of more-pork feathers found entangled in the 
netting afforded a clue to the perpetrator of these murderous attacks. From 
the appearance of the feathers and the mutilated condition of the dead birds, 
it was evident that the more-pork had tried hard, but unsuccessfully, to pull 
them through the wire netting in the roof. The following account, by the 
curator, renders this perfectly intelligible:—‘ The aviary is constructed in 
the usual manner, on the model of a bird-cage, of wire netting, over a 
wooden frame-work, with a sloping roof also of wire netting. Attached to 
the frame-work, comprising the wall-plates, on either side, there are wooden 
ledges, resembling shelves, on which the larks rest at night, while the 
chaffinches roost upon twigs planted within the aviary, and reaching within 
a few inches of the wire netting of which the roof is composed. During 
