136 



THE OOLOGIST. 



an indigenous species, due to local 

 causes. 



The second peculiarity in the habits 

 of the Quail will be best described by 

 giving an instance. In a low lying por- 

 tion of the bush, near to the swamp re- 

 ferred to, one of these birds had made 

 its nest and laid fourteen eggs close to 

 where a tree was felled to be converted 

 into shingles. When the work of con- 

 version commenced the bird was sitting 

 despite the noise of cross-cutting and 

 splitting the timber, and the removal 

 of scrub close to her nest. She sat on in 

 full sight of the workers until she 

 brought out her brood. 



When suddenly come upon the Cali- 

 fornia Quails escape detection by 

 crouching low, and keeping quiet, un- 

 til the intruder has passed when they 

 immediately fly off in an opposite direc- 

 tipn. From this it seems possible that 

 the sitting bird not being interfered 

 with by the shingle-splitters, acted in- 

 stinctively on the principle that unat- 

 tached was unperceived. The nesting 

 in flooded ground with safer situations 

 close at hand, seems at first sight like a 

 want of sagacity, but probablj both this 

 and the other peculiarity might be sat- 

 isfactorily explained by reference to the 

 original habitat of the species. Being 

 unacquainted with that portion of the 

 world whence the Ortyx califomica 

 has been imported, I must leave this 

 matter to others better informed than 

 myself, my object being merely to di- 

 rect attention to the subject. 



While these foreign quails are in- 

 creasing rapidly the indigenous species 

 (Cotumix Now? Zelandioe) is fast be- 

 coming extinct. From the northern 

 portion of the Middle Island where 

 they were formerly abundant they have 

 now entirely disappeared. Several 

 causes have led to their extinction. 

 First they inhabited the dry grass land, 

 where fires became frequent after the 

 colonization of the country, and second- 

 ly, being birds of short and weak flight, 



they fell an easy prey to the dogs. 

 Thus it can be seen that the introduc- 

 tion of a new element into the ancient 

 habitat of a species, may be more fatal 

 than the removal of a species to an en- 

 tirely new environment. 



The California Quail belonging to a 

 country where foxes, wolves and other 

 predatory quadrupeds are found, is 

 able to hold its place even against the 

 most destructive of all animals— man. 



In places like the Pelorus some un- 

 doubtedly perish by floods, but the 

 large broods from fourteen to twenty 

 in number, they annually bring out 

 more than compensate for this loss. 

 From the unusually great number of 

 eggs these birds lay it seems probable 

 that even in their orginal habitat a 

 large proportion of the eggs or young 

 get destroyed. 



Joshua Rutland, 

 New Zealand. 



Courtesy and Business in Exchanging. 



I have often wondered that someone 

 did not write an article on the matter 

 of courtesy between collectors; those 

 engaged in exchanging, and in general 

 correspondence. But as much as there 

 is a need of an article on the subject 

 no one has, it seems, found time to de- 

 vote an hour to the subject and write 

 about what we need in this line. 

 . Having been a sufferer, myself, for 

 nearly a quarter of a century, as -a 

 crank on the subject of eggs, birds, and 

 various other matters pretaining to 

 crankism, it is fair to say that my re- 

 marks are at least worthy of consider- 

 ation. 



Boys — and I reason from my know- 

 ledge of our interests, that we are near- 

 ly all boys — are too apt to think only of 

 themselves in all matters of exchange 

 and selling of specimens. It therefore 

 follows that some, yes, a large number, 

 offer specimens in exchange that they 

 have not in their collections and per- 

 haps never had. 



