XIV 



INTEODUCTIO^ 



J 



A perusal of the following ' History ' will show that the avifauna of New Zealand possesses 

 other distinguishing features of a very striking character, a full review and discussion of which 

 would occupy many pages. Having, however, already far exceeded the limits originally assigned to 

 this book, I must reserve for some future occasion the more exhaustive treatment of this subject, 

 and confine myself now to a few introductory notes, chiefly of an explanatory kind. 



In the arrangement of the genera, I have, for the most part, followed the system employed by 

 the learned editor of the ' Zoological Kecord,' Professor Newton, of Cambridge, — not that I consider 

 it altogether perfect, but because it seems to me the one of all others best adapted to the present 

 state of ornithological science. Any system of classification, however excellent in itself, or ably 

 conceived and elaborated, must of necessity be a provisional or tentative one, so long as our know- 

 ledge of the structural character and natural affinities of the vast majority of species continues so 

 imperfect as it confessedly is at present. When the anatomy of every known bird on the face of 

 the globe has been as fully investigated as that of the Rock-Dove (Cohtmba livia) was by the late Pro- 

 fessor Macgillivray, and its life-history becomes as thoroughly known, then, but not till then, will 

 it be possible to devise a system of arrangement absolutely true to nature. The aim and purpose of 

 all classification being to aid the memory in its eff'ort to comprehend and master the complex and 

 ever varied productions of nature, or, in other words, to assist the mind by a ready association of 

 ideas in the grand study of Creation, it follows that the method of arrangement which best sub- 

 serves this practical end is the right one to adopt. But we must be content to see our care- 

 fully elaborated systems swept away one after another, till, perhaps, in the distant future some 

 gifted mind shall arise, who, with the constructive energy of a second Cuvier, may be able to 

 fashion, from the more complete materials at his command, a system perfect in all its parts and 

 destined to endure till time shall be no more. 



With regard to the changes I have found it necessary to make in the generally accepted 

 nomenclature, my explanation is a simple one. While fully admitting the advantages of the 

 rule " quieta non movere " in the case of names which have obtained universal currency, I have 

 considered it better, in undertaking a general revision of the whole subject, to apply the strict 

 principle of modern nomenclature, and, in all cases where the subject was free from doubt, to 

 adopt the oldest admissible title. We cannot, of course, look for any finality in the generic 

 appellations so long as the science is a progressive one ; but I am desirous of giving something 

 like fixity and permanence to the specific names ; and with this view I have endeavoured, so far 

 as T could, to rectify all existing errors — altering the names entirely in cases where it appeared 

 to me that wrong ones had hitherto been employed, and correcting obvious classical defects in 

 others — substituting, for example, Hymenolcemus for Ilymenolaimus^ and antipodum for anti- 

 podes. In no instance have I introduced any change without very careful consideration and 

 research ; and the fact that the authorities in the British Museum have adopted, with scarcely a 

 single exception, my corrections and identifications, in the classification of the New-Zealand birds 

 in the national collection, may, I think, be accepted as a proof that I have exercised proper 



r 



judgment in this respect. 



In portraying the manners and habits of the various species, I have been careful to omit 

 nothing that seemed calculated to elucidate their natural history. It has been said that a 

 zoologist cannot be too exact in recording dates and other apparently trivial circumstances in the 



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