296 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
as yet remain to be described: young birds have been taken from 
a locality on the Minaret run; amongst other places, on the 
Mesopotamia station on the Upper Rangitata. A few years back 
a prospector returning to the pale of civilisation from the distant 
mountains he had explored, brought with him in his camp-kettle, 
or billy, a pair of nestlings; on his long and solitary march these 
had shared his fare, and reached Christchurch in good and healthy 
condition. The mountaineer has employed his staff to get out 
the young; the alpine stock being thrust close to the birds, the 
mischievous youngsters cling to it with beak and claws, and 
keeping a tight hold, are drawn out with the stock. 
Although comparatively few people are acquainted with the 
bird, it is not on that account to be considered rare; the reason 
it is so little known is the remoteness of its habitat from the 
centres of population. It certainly appears to be very local in 
its distribution; a straggler now and then has been observed far 
from its usual haunts, for in one instance we have a note of its 
occurrence at the Hororata, in the Malvern Hills, close to the 
edge of the Canterbury Plains. Its beak can inflict a severe 
wound ; a friend of ours incautiously handling a pet had his hand 
bitten through by its powerful mandibles. 
The month of March appears to be the moulting season, for 
some specimens obtained in the end of that month were observed 
to be clean moulted, whilst other birds, got some weeks earlier, 
had the new plumage only partially developed, such specimens 
presenting but a ragged appearance. 
At the shearing muster of 1868, at Mr. Campbell’s station at 
Wanaka, at Te Anau, and Wakatipu, and possibly on some other 
runs, it was noticed that many sheep appeared to be suffering 
from an hitherto unknown disease; it took the form of a sore, or °' 
scar, on the back, immediately in front of the hips. In some 
cases the part affected had a hard dry scab, or merely a patch of 
wool stripped off; others showed a severe wound, in some 
instances so deep that the entrails protruded,—every victim had 
been injured in precisely the same spot, fairly above the kidneys. 
It did not fail to strike the keen-eyed shepherds that the animals 
so maltreated were in the best condition, amongst which were 
found hoggets, fat wethers, dry ewes, and double-fleeced sheep. 
Many discussions ensued in the “ warris” as to the cause of these 
scars and deadly wounds which thinned out some of the best 
