386 MR. G. KREFFT ON THE BATRACHIANS OF SYDNEY. [Nov. 10, 



with the female. The latter utters a growling kind of scream ; while 

 the male makes a noise between a bark and a laugh, which is difficult to 

 express in words, terminating in the oft-repeated note of 55, oo, 55, bo. 

 The male bird is very lively, and readily attacks its aggressors. I 

 regret to say that the male bird died on the 16th instant ; but I have 

 preserved its skeleton, and will forward it by an early opportunity 

 to our friend Mr. Parker, as we have no skeletons of birds at pre- 

 sent in our Museum at Sydney by which its affinities could be 

 ascertained. 



The Kagu is becoming very scarce in New Caledonia, — one cause 

 of its rarity being that numbers have been shot for the table, 

 these birds being excellent eating. It is now difficult to procure 

 them dead, and still more so to take them alive. They are only 

 found in one part of the island, about ten miles distant from the set- 

 tlement of Port de France, where a gentleman told me he offered a 

 large reward to the natives to procure one to take with him to France, 

 but without success. The birds sent to me had been in the posses- 

 sion of private individuals for some time. The Kagus are easily 

 domesticated, and, when captured, are placed in the poultry-yard 

 with the fowls, where they soon become tame ; but, as a matter of 

 precaution, one of their wings is usually clipped. These birds are 

 only met with about small marshes or ponds, feeding on worms, 

 slugs, &c. The nest and eggs have not yet been discovered, although 

 every exertion has been and is still being made by some of my resi- 

 dent friends in New Caledonia for that purpose. 



6. On the Batrachians occurring in the Neighbourhood 

 OF Sydney, with Remarks upon their Geographical 

 Distribution. By Gerard Krefft. 



It must be interesting to every naturalist, and highly gratifying 

 to Dr. Albert Giinther, to learn that his estimate of the Batrachio- 

 fauna of the Australian region has not been exaggerated, and that 

 the more we know of this fauna, the closer it appears to be allied to 

 that of South America, as the learned Doctor first pointed out in his 

 famous paper " On the Geographical Distribution of Batrachians." 

 Dr. Giinther, in summing up, places the Australian region, with re- 

 gard to its richness of forms, at the head of his list, — namely, one 

 species to every 33,000 square miles. This ratio will soon be real- 

 ized, if not surpassed, as the following figures will show. 



When Dr. Giinther published his ' Catalogue of the Batrachia 

 Salientia' in 1858, he enumerated twenty-six Australian species, 

 seventeen of which have been observed by me in the neighbourhood 

 of Sydney. My collection at the International Exhibition contained 

 five new species (two new genera). Five other species, as yet un- 

 described, I have forwarded to Dr. Giinther ; and seven more are in 

 my hands. If we go on discovering at this rate, we shall soon surpass 

 in richness the South American, or rather the " Neotropical Region" 

 of Dr. Sclater. 



