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83 



On a visit to Nelson in the winter of 1860, I saw numerous flights of them in the gardens 

 and shrubberies. The results of very careful inquiries on the spot satisfied me that since their 

 first appearance there, in 1856, they had continued to visit Nelson every year, arriving at the 

 commencement of winter, and vanishing on the approach of warmer days as suddenly as they had 

 come. On every hand the settlers bore testimony to their good services in destroying the cabbage- 

 blight and other insect pests. 



About the middle of June 1861, 1 met with small flocks of this bird on the Canterbury Plains, 

 evidently on their passage northward. I first observed them in the low scrub on the broad 

 shingle-beds of the Eakaia, advancing in a very hurried manner, not high in the air, as migrations 

 are usually performed, but close to the ground, and occasionally resting. But that this bird is 

 capable of protracted flight is evidenced by the form of its wings, which are of the lengthened, 

 acuminate character, common to most birds of passage. 



During a visit to Dunedin, in the summer of 1860, the Eev. Mr. Stack observed numerous 

 flocks in the gardens and thickets in the environs of the town. At this season they had dis- 

 appeared from the Province of Canterbury and all the country further north. In the following 

 summer (1861) I met with numerous stragglers in the northern parts of the Canterbury Province, 

 and I understand from Mr. Potts that since that time it has been a permanent resident there, 

 increasing in numbers every year. 



Mr. Buchanan, of the Geological Survey Department, informs me that he observed the 

 Zostero^s at Otago, on his first arrival there in 1851, five years previous to its appearance in 

 the North Island ; and the following extracts from letters communicated to me by Dr. Hector 

 go still further to prove that the species is an indigenous one there, and is only new to the 

 country lying further north. 



Mr. Newton Watt, K.M., of Campbell Town (Southland), writes as follows : — " Paitu, a chief 

 here, and I believe the oldest man in the tribe, says it was always here. Howell says that he 

 first noticed them on the west coast, about Milford Sound, in the year 1832, in flocks of thirty or 

 forty, but never noticed them here (Riverton) till about 1863, when he saw them inland and in 

 smaller flocks. On my way back from Eiverton, I was mentioning it at the Club at Invercargill, 

 and a gentleman present told me he had first noticed them, about eighty miles inland, about the 

 year 1861, and that his attention was first called to them from the circumstance that they were 

 gregarious, — a habit not common with New-Zealand birds. At Campbell Town it appeared to be 



more scarce, being seen only in small flocks, varying in number from six to twelve, * * * In 

 1866 my sons noticed numbers of them among my cabbages, and observed that the cats caught 

 many of them ; and, further, that whilst my cabbages in the three preceding years were infested 

 with blight, in that year there was little or no blight upon them till very late in the season. 

 They appear to migrate from this locality in the winter, or at any rate to be scarce'' 



Mr. James P. Maitland, E.M., of Molyneux, writes : — " From what I hear from old settlers 

 of seventeen or eighteen years standing (whom I can trust as men of observation), I am convinced 

 we have had the birds here for that time at any rate, although all agree that they have become 

 much more numerous everywhere during the last seven years; and this year (1867) in particular 

 I observe them in larger flocks than ever. I confess I do not recollect noticing the bird until 

 about six years ago ; but the smallness of their number at that time, and the smalhiess of the 



m2 



