II.—ZOOLOGY. 
Arr. XIX.—Notes on the Ornithology of New Zealand. By Warrer L. 
Burer, C.M.G., Sc.D., F.L.S. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 1st December, 1877.] 
Forrowiwe a plan which I have pursued for some years, I beg to lay before 
the Society a budget of notes on various species of New Zealand birds, 
without any attempt at systematic arrangement. As natural history is 
made up chiefly of facts and observations, every recorded note is an 
additional contribution, however small, to the general fund. Facts, in 
themselves trivial, are often found to assume an importance in relation to 
other facts; and a random note sometimes supplies a missing link in th 
carefully elaborated chain of the systematic philosopher. 
It will be seen that in the following notes I have embodied, sometimes 
in my own language and sometimes in his, the observations of Captain 
Gilbert Mair, F.L.S., who, during a long residence on the East Coast, has 
paid special attention to the native birdsinhabiting that part of the eountry. 
In addition to habits of careful observation, he possesses a good knowledge 
of the birds themselves, and this adds very much to the value of his state- 
ments. 
Before proceeding to my own notes, I desire to call attention to the 
following passage in a very interesting paper by Mr. W. Colenso, F.L.S., 
published in the ** The Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science," as far back 
as April, 1845, which I have only lately had an opportunity of reading :— 
** A little below Ngaruawahie (in the Waikato district) we met a man in a 
canoe with a live and elegant specimen of the genus Fulica. I hailed the 
man and purchased the bird, which he had recently snared, for a little 
tobacco. It was a most graceful creature, and, as far as I am aware, an 
entirely new and undescribed species. Its general colour was dark, almost 
black; head grey and without a frontal shield; fore-neck and breast 
ferruginous red; wings barred with white ; bill produeed and sharp; feet 
and legs glossy olive ; toes beautifully and largely festooned at the edges ; 
eye light-coloured and very animated. It was very fierce and never ceased 
attempting to bite at everything within itsreach. I kept it until we landed, 
intending to preserve it, but as it was late, and neither material at hand nor 
time to spare, and the animal too, looking so very lovely that I could not 
