928 Transactions.—Z ooloyy. 
the wholesale killing of Hawks in a country like this is a questionable 
policy, from a utilitarian point of view, as it tends to disturb the balance of 
nature, and to interfere with the general conditions of animal life, already 
too much disturbed by the operations of Acclimatization Societies. The 
rapacious birds have an important part to perform in the economy of 
nature; and species, like the present, which are partly insectivorous, are 
too valuable to the practical agriculturist, to be destroyed with impunity, 
although they may occasionally attack a sickly lamb in the flock, or swoop 
on a young turkey. 
Mr. C. H. Robson, of Cape Campbell, sends me the following interesting 
note :—*: In the spring of 1878, I observed a very large female Hawk of a 
brighter colour than usual, with very distinct markings, and presenting quite 
a yellow appearance as compared with the ordinary hawk. She rose, the 
first time I saw her, out of a piece of swampy ground near the beach, and, 
on a subsequent occasion, finding her in the same place, I hunted about 
and fonnd her nest in a tussock, with two white eggs in it. Being anxious 
to secure the young birds, I did not handle the eggs, but visited the nest 
every week, each time coming quite close to the bird. In due time one of 
the eggs hatched out a little yellow-white chick, but a few days later, to my 
great regret, it was taken, I presume, by arat. On flying off the nest the 
Hawk was joined by the male bird, not nearly so large as herself, and 
always too high in the air for me to observe his plumage.” 
Sceloglaux albifacies. 
A specimen of this large Owl lately received at the Canterbury Museum, 
and forwarded to Europe by Dr. Haast, is sufficiently white about the face 
to justify the specific name bestowed by Mr. G. R. Gray. In ordinary 
examples, however, this is quite a subordinate feature. 
Nestor meridionalis. 
Of this species Captain Mair writes :—“ In J une last I was at Tuhua in 
the upper Wanganui. I found the Kakas there so fat that they could not 
fly. Iactually eaught fifteen of them on the ground, as they were unable 
io take wing. 
Haleyon vagans. 
On the feeding habits of this species, Mr. Henry C. Field of Wanganui 
has sent me the following interesting observations, which exhibit the King- 
fisher in the new character of à frugivorous bird :— 
“ Knowing the interest you take in our New Zealand birds, I have 
thought you might like to be informed of the following trait in the 
habits of the Kotare, which I think is not generally known.  Abouta week 
before Christmas my children reported to me that in what they took to be a 
rat’s hole in the pumice bank of the stream, just behind my garden, there 
