19 



"I first observed it (in Canterbury) after some rough weather, July 28, 1856. 

 I saw about half-a-dozen specimens, on some isolated black birch trees in the 

 Rockwood Yalley in the Malvern Hills." In the Auckland Museum there is 

 a specimen of this bird, sent from Nelson by Mr. St. John (an industrious bird 

 collector), in 1856. The skin was labelled " stranger," and in the letter accom- 

 panying it, Mr. St. John states that these birds had made their fii-st appear- 

 ance in Nelson that tvinter (the same in which they crossed to the North 

 Island), and that " no one, not even the natives, had ever seen them before." 



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 enquiries on the 

 spot satisfied me that since their first appeai-ance there, in 1856, they had 

 continued to visit Nelson every yeai", 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 theu' good services in destroying 

 the cabbage blight and other insect pests. 



About the middle of June, 1861, I 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 Rakaia, 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 Rev. Mr. Stack 

 observed numerous flocks in the gardens and thickets in the envii"ons of the 

 town. At this season they had disapjoeared from the Province of Canterbury 

 and all the country further north. In the following summer (1861), I met 

 with numerous stragglers in the noi'thei'n jjarts of the Canterbury Province, and 

 I undei'stand 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 Zoster oi^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 tliere, and is only new to the countiy lying 

 further north. 



Mr. Newton Watt, R.M., of Camjjbell 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 Riverton, I was mentioning it at 

 the Club at Invercargill, and a gentleman present told me he had first noticed 



