236 Transactions.— Zoology. 
genus extends through the Indian Archipelago into India, and I have not 
been able yet to compare our grass-birds with those of Australia and the 
Archipelago so that I am not able to say what amount of difference there is 
between them. The genus KAeropia has most affinity with South American 
birds, while Graucalus melanops, which is closely related to our G. concinnus, 
is said to extend from Australia into New Guinea. 
In the order Gralle, or Waders, we come to birds more widely spread than 
any others, some indeed being almost cosmopolitan, but even amongst these 
the isolated character of our fauna is still marked, for out of twenty-eight 
species, belonging to seventeen genera, eight species and two genera are found 
nowhere else. The most noticeable feature in this order is the existence of a 
curious genus of rails (Ocydromus) quite unable to fly. Of this genus we 
possess four species, one in the North and three in the South Island, while a 
fifth species is found in Lord Howe Island, and a sixth in New Caledonia. 
Notornis, although somewhat like the pukeko (Porphyrio melanotus) in the 
bill, has the feeble wings, thick legs, and short toes of Tribonyx mortierii 
of Tasmania and Australia. Of our other rails two (R. pectoralis and 
O. tabuensis) are spread over Australia and Polynesia, while another 
(O. afinis) although not found elsewhere is closely related to a species from 
Australia (0. palustris). In the godwit (Limosa uropygialis) we have 
another migratory bird that probably comes from Polynesia, but as it is also 
found in Australia we cannot feel any certainty about it. New Zealand also 
displays the peculiarity of being the only country in the world inhabited by 
two species of stilt-plover (Himantopus) one of which (H. nove-zealandie) is 
found nowhere else. This is probably owing to the length of time that New 
Zealand has been isolated, and to its having had during the whole of the 
period a stilt-plover on it, which gradually changed until it attained that 
remarkable jet black plumage which is so different from any other species, 
while the later colonist from Australia (H. leucocephalus) displays the colour 
usual to the genus. This view is rendered the more probable by the fact that 
the young of the black stilt-plover have the same pied plumage that is 
exhibited by the adults of those species from one of which I suppose it to 
have been derived. 
Tn the crook-bill (Anarhynchus frontalis) we have another curious anomaly 
which as yet has received no explanation ; and it must also be noticed that 
Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, and New Zealand, each possess 
a black oyster-catcher (Hamatopus), which are considered specifically distinct. 
Among the herons the only very remarkable fact is the occurrence of the 
little bittern (Ardea pusilla), a bird found only in Australia and Natal. Our 
snipe (G. pusilla) very much resembles in plumage G. stricklandi from Tierra 
del Fuego, but it has a shorter bill. 
