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Burrzzn.—l'urther Contributions to the Ornithology of New Zealand. 875 
again on the beach, repeating the operation again and again till the coach 
reached the Paikakariki, a distance of some twenty miles. Any bird of 
ordinary intelligence would have made a circuit and got behind the pursuing 
coach. But the Skua ashore was evidently out of his latitude; and this 
was made more apparent by the manner in which the sea-gulls (of both 
species), his hereditary victims at sea, pursued him in the air and buffeted 
him. As is well known this bird usually subsists by plunder, pursuing the 
gulls and compelling them to disgorge their food. Here, however, the 
conditions were changed, as I myself had an opportunity of observing from 
the box-seat. The skua had alighted in a shallow beach-stream and was 
ducking its body in the water when a fine old hawk / Circus gouldi) with 
hoary white plumage, suddenly appeared from the sandhills and swooped 
down upon the intruder. The skua, without making any show of resistance, 
instantly disgorged from its crop the entire body of a diving petrel 
( Pelecanoides urinatriv). The hawk, balancing himself for a moment with 
outspread tail, dropped his long talons into the stream and clutched up his 
prey without wetting a feather of his plumage, and then disappeared among 
the sand-hills, while the terrified skua hurried off, only to be pursued again 
by the clamorous sea-gulls. Thus we have examples of ‘retributive 
justice” even among birds. 
The flight of this bird is heavy, and performed by slow regular flappings 
of the wings, with the shoulders much arched. It possesses, however, the 
faculty of turning quickly in the air, as I observed when the gulls were in 
pursuit. On the wing the white mark across the primaries is very 
conspicuous, but it is not sufficiently apparent to distinguish the bird when 
the body is at rest. 
Prion vittatus, Lacép.—Broad-billed Dove Petrel. 
As already stated in my paper on Prion banksii, after boisterous weather 
in July, I found the sea-beach between Waikanae and Manawatu strewn 
with the dead bodies of Prion turtur and P. banksii, the former species 
preponderating. Having occasion to make the journey again after stormy 
weather in the early part of the following month, I found the strand strewn 
with even a larger number of bodies, but, strange to say, nearly all 
belonging to the very broad-billed species, Prion vittatus. Out of twenty- 
four specimens picked up in succession, there were only three of Prion turtur 
and none of P. banksii. Scores of others which I was able to determine 
from the box of the coach, belonged to P. vittatus, with here and there a P, 
turtur, but not a single example could I find of the intermediate form so 
plentiful a month before. It may be inferred from this singular fact that 
the species do not intermingle, but fly in separate communities. I have 
observed flocks of Prion turtur on the wing together numbering many 
