HuTTON. — On the Geographical Relations of the N,Z. Fauna. 227 



greyish, black, with more or less grey on the outer webs near the base, and 

 with a rather broad white margin on the outer web and tip.; greater wing- 

 coverts margined outvjardly with white ; tail feathers acutely pointed at the tip, 

 the two middle ones brownish grey, laterals brownish black tipped with white, 

 the white decreasing inwards ; shafts of the tail-feathers greyish black above 

 and pure white below ; bill (dry) brownish black, paler at the base j legs and 

 feet (dry) black. 



Measurement in Inches. 



Wing 



Tail 



Tarsus 



Hind toe 



Middle toe 



Bill, — Culmen 



„ Breadth at nostrils 

 „ Height at nostrils 

 This bird was shot on or about the 8th April, 1870, in an apple tree near 

 Invercargill, Southland. 



Note. — Since reading this paper Mr. Mantell has informed me that he 

 saw this bird many years ago at Port Chalmers, in Otago ; Mr. W. Travers 

 says that he has seen it in Nelson, and Capt. Fraser says that he saw it near 

 Hawea Lake, in Otago. — F. W. H. 



G. concinnus, 

 (New Zealand). 



8 



G. melandps, 

 (Australia), 

 2 examples. 

 8 



7 



6-5 



1-1 



M 



•8 



•8 



M 



M 



•85 



•85 



•4 



•5 



•35 



•46 



Art. XX YI. — On the Geographical Relations of the New Zealand Fauna. 

 By Capt. F. W. Hutton, C.M.Z.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, Ath and Wth September, 1872.] 



I KNOW of no part of the world that presents such a promising field to the 

 student of Nature as New Zealand. Although small in size it contains a 

 fauna and flora so peculiar that several naturalists consider it as a separate 

 biological province apart from the rest of the world. Isolated from any large 

 continental area longer probably than any other portion of the earth, it 

 contains the remnant of the population of a continent that existed before the 

 Mammalia had overspread the world, and to that has at various times been 

 added, principally from Australia, a colonist population which culminated not 

 many hundreds of years ago in the advent of man. New Zealand, therefore, 

 presents us with what I may call the elements of a continental fauna, or a 



