BurrER.—On the Disappearance of the Korimako. 209 
Shag,” the mapo or matapo of the Maoris. He describes this bird as 
“brown all over with a yellow tinge on the throat," and says that it 
frequents lakes and the upper courses of rivers and is never met with on 
the sea coast. A colony of them, numbering about a dozen individuals 
(exclusively of this kind) breed every year in a kahikatea forest near the 
shores of Lake Rotorua. 
ÅPTERYX AUSTRALIS, Shaw.—South Island Kiwi. 
Comparatively few specimens of this bird are now brought in by collectors 
in the South Island, whereas the supply of Apteryx oweni is undiminished. 
APTERYX MANTELLI, Bartl.—North Island Kiwi. 
The natives whom I found camping at the foot of the Kaimanawa range 
in Mareh last assured me that the kiwi was still very plentiful there. 
About a fortnight before the date of my visit (or end of February) they 
eaptured a female with a well-grown young one in a hollow log. It may be 
inferred therefrom that this species commences nesting about the beginning 
of January. As the natives agree that there is never more than one young 
bird in the nest, it seems probable that the kiwi breeds twice during the 
season. 
Art, XXL —On the Disappearance of the Korimako (Anthornis melanura) 
Jrom the North Island. By Waurer L. Burer, C.M.G., Sc.D. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd September, 1877.] 
In my “History of the Birds of New Zealand," in treating of this 
bird I made the following statement, which was afterwards challenged by 
Captain Hutton, in a communication to ** The Ibis :’— 
“ This species, formerly very plentiful in every part of the country, 
appears to be rapidly dying out. From some districts, where a few years 
ago it was the commonest bird, it has now entirely vanished. In the 
Waikato it is comparatively scarce; on the East Coast it is only rarely met 
with; and from the woods north of Auckland it has disappeared altogether. 
In my journeys through the Kaipara district eighteen years ago, I found 
this bird excessively abundant everywhere; and on the banks of the 
Wairoa the bush fairly swarmed with them. Dr. Hector, who passed over 
ihe same ground in 1866, assures me that he scarcely ever met with it; 
and a valued correspondent, writing from Whangarei (about eighty miles 
north of Auckland), says :—' In 1859 this bird was very abundant, in 1860 
it was less numerous, in 1862 it was extremely rare, and from 1863 to 
1866 I never saw but one individual. It now seems to be entirely extinct 
in this district, ” 
