214 Transactions.—Zoology. 
they have no doubt been preserved from destruction by the very inaccessibility 
of their habitats, both to man and to other animals, Tt is interesting to observe 
that, except the two new species added to science, nearly the whole of the birds 
occupying these islands are identical with New Zealand species. It is not 
at all improbable that Haladroma berardii and Graculus africanus will also 
be found on our coasts, leaving only Petroica traversit, Rallus modestus, 
Chrysococcyx plagosus, and Anthornis melanocephala as absolutely peculiar to 
the Chathams. Of these again Petroica traversii possesses exactly the habits, 
and even the common note, of Petroica albifrons and P. longipes, whilst 
Anthornis melanocephala is too closely allied to Anthornis melanura to render 
their common descent at all doubtful. The differences between the Petroice 
are not so great as those between the two species of New Zealand Orthoniz, 
one of which only inhabits each of the two larger islands of New Zealand. 
This almost identity of the avi-fauna of the Chatham Islands with that of 
New Zealand is observable also in the flora, of which my son, during his late 
visit, made almost exhaustive collections. These are now in the hands of 
Baron von Mueller, of Melbourne, for examination. I am led to believe that 
the identity which was found to exist between the great majority of the 
species obtained by him in 1867 and species inhabiting New Zealand, is 
maintained in connection with the much larger number of species which he 
collected during his recent visit, but upon this point I have no doubt 
Baron von Mueller will fully remark when he publishes the results of his 
investigations. 
I have had no opportunity of ascertaining how far this resemblance 
extends in the case of the other forms of life found in the Chathams, but I 
think it extremely probable that the greater number of the few insects, etc., 
which my son obtained will be found to be identical with species also 
occupying New Zealand. This almost identity of the organic productions of 
the two groups suggests forcibly a former, and (speaking geologically as 
regards time) not long past, connection between them, or, in other words, 
extension of the lower lands of New Zealand so as to embrace the Chatham 
Islands since the great mass of the existing living productions of both have 
assumed their present forms. Interesting fields of speculation are opened out 
as to whether it is the Chatham Island or the New Zealand species now 
presenting differences of a specific nature which have undergone variation ; as 
for instance in the case of the birds, the two species of Anthornis, and in the 
case of the ferns, the two different forms of Lomaria discolor ; but I must 
leave more speculative and more competent minds to deal with this question. 
I may add that my son made diligent search and inquiry for moa bones, but 
did not obtain any, nor any information respecting them. 
In the following notes, which are to be assumed to have been written by 
