2794 The Zoologist— October, 1871. 



They are remarkable also as giving the Maori name of every bird, showing 

 that this fine race of men, which, alas ! we are endeavouring to exterminate, 

 have attained a knowledge of native or indigenous Ornithology not possessed 

 by any other people on the earth. It is true that one or two instances 

 occur among the passerine birds in which the same name has been applied 

 to two or three species, but out of one hundred species I think ninety-six have 

 distinctive native names. How favourably this knowledge contrasts with 

 the state of our ignorance in Britain, France or Germany, in either of which 

 countries a gentleman would blush to find himself possessed of such know- 

 ledge, and would probably defend himself from ridicule by explaining that 

 when a boy he had stuffed birds for his own amusement : we only tolerate 

 such attainments in the curators of museums. We are, as a nation, thanks 

 to the Zoological Society, better acquainted with some of the more remarkable 

 birds of New Zealand, as the Tui and the Kiwi, than with the more abundant 

 speties in our native island. This knowledge of native birds on the part of 

 the Maori has greatly assisted the European ornithologist in compiling 

 a correct and complete Catalogue of the Avifauna of New Zealand. 



Mr. Gray has published ' A List of the Birds of New Zealand and the 

 adjacent Islands,' and Mr. Gould a ' Handbook of the Birds of Australia,' 

 in an Appendix to which he has minutely described a few of the more 

 interesting New Zealand birds. Mr. Potts, at p. 40 of the ' Transactions 

 of the New Zealand Institute,' has given us most interesting notes on the 

 same subject, and to this important contribution to Science the present 

 paper forms a valuable addendum or Appendix ; it has already appeared iu 

 the third volume of the same ' Transactions,' and a copy has been obligingly 

 sent to me by Mr. Potts. T regard the addendum as an original contribution 

 to the ' Zoologist' fron:\ an old correspondent, and only regret that it is too 

 long to reprint in c.vtenso, and that I am in consequence compelled to make 

 selections where all is good. The birds whose habits are described in my 

 extracts are precisely those concerning which information was especially 

 desired. — Edward Xewman.] 



The Flycatcher (Rhipidura flabellifera), — To the quiet observer 

 of the habits of our bird-friends, but few sights can afford more 

 gratificuiion than watching the patient industry which is displayed 

 by the very energetic and useful flycatcher in the construction of 

 its conipactly-fornied nest. The nest is to be found near its food 

 supply (lor the young will make incessant demands on the exertions 

 of the parent birds), and it seeks a sheltered position where insects 

 "most do congregate;" it must at the same time afford " ample 

 room and verge enough" for the numberless evolutions to be per- 

 formed by the rapid fluttering of two pairs of most active wings, 



