* 
294 Transactions.— Zoology. 
Ichneumons — a tribe of parasitic insects the most valuable of all, for 
scarcely an insect exists that is not exposed to the attack of one species or 
another of them. Every species of ichneumon has its particular species 
of insect upon which its larve exist. The victim is generally the larva (in 
some cases the egg or pupa) of some other insect. The egg of the parasite 
having been deposited by means of a long ovipositor, and hatched in the body 
of its victim, the parasite grub there feeds upon it, for days and months, 
devouring all but the vital organs ; and so accurately is the supply of food 
proportioned to the demand that the victim lives just long enough for the 
parasitic grub to become full-fed and ready to assume the pupa state. 
I have now only to indicate what birds are most valuable for us to intro- 
duce and acclimatize. 
Thanks to our Acclimatization Society, many useful birds have already been 
introduced, and thoroughly established. Pheasants, sparrows, and chaftinches 
are plentiful ; and many other birds (included in the list below), though at 
present scarce, seem to have obtained a firm footing. 
To enumerate all the useful birds it is desirable to introduce would occupy 
more space than can be afforded in this paper, and I, therefore, confine myself 
to suggesting the few I have named in the list below ; and, in selecting from 
such list, it should be a matter for consideration what species will increase the 
most rapidly, and spread over the country ; and it should be borne in mind 
that many of the birds which live entirely on insect food are less valuable, for 
the purposes for which we require them, than others not wholly insectivorous, 
and that gregarious birds are preferable to those comparatively solitary. 
The following is the list of birds recommentled as insectivorous in their 
habits :—Rooks, jackdaws, partridges, landrails, starlings, skylarks, quails, 
plovers, redpolls, swallows, martens, swifts, blackbirds, thrushes, pipits, wag- 
tails, nightingales, tits and their allied species, and wrens, 
Art. XXXIV.— Remarks on the Coleoptera of Canterbury, New Zealand. 
By ©. M. WAKEFIELD. 
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th September, 1872.] 
BEFORE commencing my brief review of the Coleoptera of this province I trust 
I may be permitted to make a few observations upon the difficulties which 
beset the entomological student in New Zealand, and upon the means by 
which in my opinion they may be obviated. For several years I have taken 
much interest in the beetles of this colony, and have collected them so far as 
_ my avocations would permit. At every step of my inquiry, however, I have 
been met and thwarted by an obstacle which I apprehend is familiar to all 
