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1 08 Transactions. — Zoology. 



lias written some notes on the subject (Transactions of N. Z. Institute, 

 Vol. VI., page 110), considers the differences sufficient to warrant tlieir 

 separation into species, but his admission that one form may be only a " sub- 

 species " of the other, reopens the whole question, for a bird must belong 

 either to one recognised species or to another, and if these forms run into 

 each other by gradations of size and plumage, however numerous, they must 

 all be considered to belong to one and the same species. The collection of 

 sucli a series of specimens as would satisfactorily settle this point is as much 

 the work of the 6 eld- as the cabinet-naturalist. 



Nor need the student of ornithology in New Zealand despair of finding 

 fresh species and gratifying the pardonable ambition of attaching to a newly 

 discovered form an imperishable specific name. Many portions of the country 

 are only half explored, especially the mountain fastnesses of the Southern 

 Alps and the rugged wooded country on their western slopes. Tlie south- 

 west coast of the South Island has been scarcely vLsited, and there are many 

 liundreds of miles of sea shore a,s yet undisturbed by the fowler's gun. In 

 the extensive marshes also of both islands new birds may be confidently looked 

 for. The natives describe three or four dififerent kinds of Rail which formerly 

 existed in the wet swamps or along their edges, the disappearance of which 

 they attribute to the ravages of introduced dogs and cats. It is not unlikely 

 that a remnant of these may still exist in the remote and uninhabited parts 

 of the country. 



Our sea-birds again (especially the great section of Petrels) are very 

 imperfectly known, and we have much to learn respecting their breeding 

 habits and general economy. The South Pacific is the great nursery of this 

 family, and we may rest assured that there are some species not yet described. 

 Many of these birds never api^roach the land, but during heavy gales some of 

 the smaller species are frequently cast ashore, and are to be picked uj) either 

 dead or in an exhausted state on our ocean beaches. Novelties may always 

 be looked for among these " waifs from the sea." 



We hear from time to time of the grand Notornis inantellij and no doubt a 

 remnant of the race still survives in tlie back country to reward the collector's 

 zeal and to enrich our local museums. The diminutive Owl, of which we have 

 lately heard so much, still eludes the grasp of the naturalist ; and other birds 

 of which the intelligent settler si)eaks with confidence, are as yet " unknown 

 to science." We must be careful, however, as to the amount of confidence to 

 be given to the accounts of ordinary observers, for wc all know how a])t 

 sucli people are to get wrong impressions of the objects they see. For 

 example, I once heard a farmer describe a bird which he had seen, and 

 which turned out to be an AjJieryx, in the following terms : — " It was a 

 fine large bird with dark plumage, something like a duck, but more like a 

 turkey !" 



