806 Transactions.— Zoology. 
like the ears of a scallop shell (fig. 16, nest open). The outside of the lid has 
no tiling, but is formed of soil cemented together, and has remains of lichens 
on it (fig. 17, vertical view). The lid fits tight as a flap, and has no 
markings on its under side. The soil of this sod is a light brown loam ; 
and an odd peculiarity in this nest is, that a space for the nest and for the 
lid has evidently been excavated (fig. 15) out of the sod or soil so as to allow 
of the lid opening back, which it does freely without spring, and remains 
open. 
Art. XLIII.— Notes on some Changes in the Fauna of Otago. 
By R. Guus, F.L.8 
[Read before the Otago Institute, 11th September, 1877.] 
Tux writings of Darwin and others have, made us familiar with the theory 
of natural selection, and given a new impetus and a definite meaning to the 
investigation of biological phenomena which previously were looked upon 
as isolated unrelated facts. Amidst all the turmoil and strife which the 
enunciation of this hypothesis provoked, perhaps there was nothing which 
excited less dispute than the assigning of the passing away of ancient 
races, and their being supplanted by new and more vigorous species, to the 
principle of the survival of the fittest, and there was no class of facts more 
freely and frankly admitted as such, than those which in such countries as 
Australia, South America, ete., demonstrate that the indigenous species 
have very quickly retired before and been supplanted by foreign introduced 
forms. It may, therefore, seem almost superfluous to supplement these facts 
in any way. But I am inclined to think that most people are not sufficiently 
impressed with them, and hence fail to grasp their meaning. At any rate 
I am quite sure that to those who have seen and observed similar pheno- 
mena, these changes appeal with a cogency which, to the ordinary reader is 
a-wanting. The forms of life which we see around us now in New Zealand 
‘are not the forms which peopled and clothed our hills and valleys, woods and 
plains, even a quarter of a century ago. The change, though rapid, and in 
some cases complete, has been silent and continuous, and hence has escaped 
observation, and it is only by casting the memory back to what was the 
state of matters years ago that we realize how much the conditions of things 
have changed. Hence it is, too, that a detailed and exact record of such 
changes is impossible, and that we even now find a difficulty in obtaining 
such reliable data as is desirable for our purpose. Were it possible to 
 foresee what forms were likely to be modified or were becoming extinct, then 
