214 Transactions. — Zoology. 



tliey 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 im]3robable that Haladroma herardii and Graculus africanus will also 

 be found on our coasts, leaving only Petroica traversii, Mallus 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 alhifrons 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 Petroicce 

 are not so great as those between the two species of New Zealand Orthonix, 

 one of which onlv inhabits each of the two lara^er 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 



