106 Transactions. 
remembers the Quail (Coturnix nove-zealandie@) common on Flat Island, close 
to the Great Barrier. It is quite extinct there now, and has been so for 
several years. 
Arr. XIII.—WNotes on the Birds of the Little Barrier Island. 
^ By Captain F. W. Hurton, F.GS. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 6th July, 1868.] 
Dunrxa last December I spent four days on the eastern side of the Little 
Barrier Island, and noticed the following birds.* ; 
Another bird also lives on the island, apparently in the cliffs, and comes 
out only in the evenings. Its cry is a peculiar kind of laugh, in a descend- 
ing scale, and is very ridiculous to hear. I saw it twice by the light of a 
fire. It appeared to be rather larger than a Morepork (Athene nove- 
zealandie), with rounded wings, and soft flight like an owl or a parrot. It 
was light-coloured underneath. I did not seethe back. What kind of bird it 
was I cannot even conjecture. 
It will be noticed that the Kiwi (Apteryz mantelli) does not appear in 
this list ; and, notwithstanding current reports, Í am inclined to think that 
it is either very rare or else does not exist on the island. I was accompanied 
by a very good dog, but we neither heard nor saw a Kiwi during the whole 
time we were on the island. I am also informed by Mr. Barstow, of the Bay 
of Islands, that in 1842 Captain Wood, of H.M.S. “ Tortoise,” spent three 
or four days on the Little Barrier with the express object of catching Kiwis, 
but did not see one. Sir George Grey told me that he also spent a day or 
two on the south-west side of the island, looking for Kiwis, but found none. 
Art. XIV.—WNotes on the Basin of Te Tarata, Rotomahana. 
By Captain F. W. Hurrton, F.G.S. 
Plate V. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 6th July, 1868.] 
Ox the 3rd of March last, in company with Colonel Haultain, Mr. H. 
Clarke, and Mr. Traill, I visited the celebrated hot spring of Te Tarata, at 
Rotomahana. As we crossed Lake Tarawera in a canoe, large volumes of 
steam were seen issuing from the crater, but on reaching it, about an hour 
afterwards, it was much quieter, very little steam ascending, and the water 
1:9 Bs sume of 33 species, marked with an asterisk, in the list of birds found ca ho 
