2^6 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 Keropia has most affinity with South American 

 birds, while Graucalus mdano'ps^ which is closely related to our G. concinnus, 

 is said to extend from Australia into New Guinea. 



In the order Grallce, 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 {Ocydroinus) 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 souiewhat like the pukeko {Porphyrio melanotus) in the 

 bill, has the feeble wings, thick legs, and short toes of Tribonyx inortierii 

 of Tasmania and Australia. Of our other rails two [R. pectoralis and 

 0. tabicensis) are spread over Australia and Polynesia, while another 

 (0. affinis) 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. novoe-zealandice) 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. 



In 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 {Hcematopus), which are considered specifically distinct. 



Among the herons the only very remarkable fact is the occurrence of the 

 little bittern {A^-dea 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. 



