BULLER.—On New Zealand Ornithology. 51 
2. In speaking of the distribution of representative species, north and 
south, as being a “hitherto unnoticed fact," I referred, of course, to the New 
Zealand birds alone. I did not intend to imply that the fact was new in 
geographic ornithology; on the contrary, I referred particularly to an 
instance mentioned by Darwin as occurring in the Galapagos Archipelago. 
As a further example of this peculiar local distribution, I may instance the 
Piopio. Zurnagra crassirostris is a South Island species, while Turnagra 
hectori, Buller, (4 Ibis," 1868), is confined exclusively to the North Island. 
Bearing on this subjeet, Dr. Hochstetter has the following interesting 
remarks :—“ New Zealand was perhaps a large continent when the Moas 
were first created. And if we suppose this, or at least that the two islands 
were formerly contiguous to each other, we of course suppose also that the 
separation took place so long a time ago, that the originally identical 
species, after the separation of the two islands, may have been changed in 
the course of time into the present varieties or species. According to . 
Professor Owen the birds of South Island present stouter proportions, a 
compact, rather bulky frame of body, such as Dinornis robustus, elephantopus, 
crassus, and Palapteryx ingens, while those of North Island are distinguished 
by more slender and lengthy forms, like the Dinornis giganteus and gracilis. 
(“ New Zealand," p. 191.) 
3. A small swallow has occasionally made its appearance in New Zealand. 
In the summer of 1851 Mr. F. Jollie observed a flight of swallows at Waka- 
puaka, in the vicinity of Nelson, and succeeded in shooting one. A specimen 
“shot by Mr. Lea, at Taupata, near Cape Farewell, 14th March, 1856,” I have 
identified with Hylochelidon nigricans (Chelidon arborea), Gould, the “tree 
swallow” of the colonists. The specimen is slightly larger than Australian 
examples with which I have compared it; but we are informed by Gould 
that considerable difference exists both in size and in the depths of colouring 
of specimens killed in New South Wales, Swan River, and Tasmania. (“Hand- 
book,” L, p. 111.) It is a migratory species, visiting the southern portions of 
Australia and Tasmania, arriving in August and retiring northward as autumn 
approaches. 
Wonderful as it may appear, there can be no doubt that the New Zealand 
examples are visitants from the continent of Australia, and that to reach this 
country they have performed a journey, on the wing, of fully 1,000 miles! 
4. It will be seen, on reference to the “Essay,” that when I noticed the 
absence of Picide as a remarkable fact, I was speaking of the peculiarities 
of the zoological province as a whole, and not of New Zealand birds particu- 
larly. It is admitted by our leading ornithologists that the total absence of 
this important tribe in the Australasian fauna is one of its most prominent 
ornithological features. 
