24 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
frightfully mangled, was brought for sale to a local bird-stufer, who 
purchased it and set it up ; its weight was 28 lbs.—Ii. P. Laruen (Gatton 
Tower, Reigate). 
The Acclimatisation of Red-deer in New Zealand.—Judging by 
the distance Englishmen travel to obtain sport, I think it would be worth 
while to draw the attention of sportsmen to the New Zealand Red-deer, 
now thoroughly acclimatised on the Nelson Hills—indeed, so numerous, 
that an epen season is annually prochiimed by the Acclimatisation Society— 
this year extending from February 18ib to the end of March—free to alk 
on payment of a license fee of £1. By way of explanation, I may mention 
that to the north and east of Nelson, a wide area of bush-fern and grass- 
hills extend for some forty miles in either direction; these conta many 
open valleys, giades, perpetual streams, and several small rivers. This wide 
track is now stocked with deer, and Jately has been made more accessible 
by a good coaeh-road, which passes one or more village settlements, where 
comfortable accommodation can be obtained. Here, in the loveliest and 
most invigorating of weather—the end of the New Zealand summer and the 
commencement of autumn—the sportsman can stalk deer to his heart's 
content, thoroughly enjoy life, live with comfort im a cotton tent, and eat, 
if so disposed the products of his gun. ‘The history of the Nelson deer does 
not extend far back. Somewhere about 1830 the Hon. Mr. Peters—then 
a Nelson settler—presented a pair to the province. These were turned out 
in an adjoining valley which forms the source of the river passing through 
the town, and called, like the valley, the Maitai. Here for some time they 
remained undisturbed until a too-keen sportsman, evidently intent on again 
tasting venison, cruelly stalked one, leaving the survivor unmated. His 
Royal Highness Prince Albert, hearing of the matter, kindly sent out a 
second pair. These were turned out in the same valley, and within a few 
years had increased and multiplied so that travellers reported seeing young 
deer. This was eveutually corroborated in the most indisputable way, by 
predatory visits from herds of deer into the adjacent gardens, and causing 
no small diseomfiture to the owners. With their rapid increase and con- 
stantly renewed depredations, the settlers commenced driving them back, 
aud so persistently, that they were eyentually distributed over an area 
equal in extent to the half of Seotland, now offering good sport for more 
guns than are likely to be brought to New Zealand in the present century. 
The deer are not only numerous, but large in size, often weighing, when 
cleaned, 4cwt. One of my sons shot his first stag, which drew the scale 
at d¢ewt.—H. B. Huppieston, C.E. (Blenheim, Marlborough, N. Z.). 
BIRDS. 
Food of the Manx Shearwater.— With reference to Mr. H. A. 
Macpherson’s note (Zool. 1888, p. 470), I should like to say that if, how- 
