In the Haunts of New Zealand Birds 



121 



pitched upon the tiniest and most inoffensive of birds, the Gray Warbler, 

 to rear their unwelcome broods. 



It would be quite impossible, in the limits of the present paper, to de- 

 scribe the great number of sea and shore birds which frequent New Zea- 

 land. There are three or four of such peculiar interest, however, that I 

 cannot refrain from alluding to them in passing. Of these, none is more 

 singular than the Wry-billed Plover, with its bill turned sharply to the right, 

 as if deformed. This peculiar structure is said to be of use in getting food 

 out from around the corners of stones on the sea-shore. The Notornis, a 

 flightless Gallinule of giant size, is interesting on account of its great 

 rarity, only two or three specimens having been secured. In contrast to this 

 showy purple monster, which has become extinct through its loss of the 

 power of flight, may be mentioned two of the most extraordinary bird 

 travelers in the world. The Eastern Golden Plover, which occasionally 

 visits New Zealand, nests in Siberia and Kamtchatka, while the Bar-tailed 

 Godwit journeys northward every autumn to its summer home in the same 

 region. New Zealand is the very center of distribution for birds of the 

 Albatross and Petrel family, which nest upon its southern rock-bound islets 

 and wander hence over the cold and stormy seas of those high latitudes. 

 The group includes birds which range in size from the largest and most 

 daring creature of flight to frail wind -wanderers scarcely larger than the 

 swallow. 



In this brief resume of New Zealand birds, I have merely undertaken 

 to give a few glimpses into the life of that strange and beautiful wonder- 

 land, to peer amid the tree-ferns and the beech boughs for gentle songsters, 

 to wander in the primeval bush for an introduction to the shy creatures 

 which haunt its shadows. If these birds are to be known, it must be done 

 at once, for a host of relentless enemies are sweeping them from the face 

 of the earth. 



