61 



notes whicli have been pi^epared on tlie question as to whether we possess more 

 than one species of Falco ; and I will for the present only refer to Plate IX., 

 which represents a nesting place on the edge of a wooded gully, intersecting 

 one of the spurs of Rocky Hill, Malvern Hills, from whence three eggs were 

 taken in the month of November. 



No. 3. — -Athene Nov^e Zelandi^e. 

 Ruru, rui'upeho. 

 More-pork. 



The small number of species of nocturnal Accipitres that are at present 

 known to exist in this country is in correspondence with the marked absence 

 of variety in the species of diurnal Raptores in oiir bird system ; yet, that it 

 should do so appears unaccountable. In the first place must be noted the 

 entire absence of the Ccqirimulgidce, a family which, iia many lands, in the 

 chase of their insect prey compete with several of those species of Strigidce, 

 which are crepuscular, or nocturnal, in their habits. The ceaseless 

 persecution which the falcons and harriers have sustained at the hands 

 of the imreflective European settler must have ensured a very abundant 

 supply of food to the owls ; some of the smaller mammalia have increased 

 enormously ; mice, young rabbits, rats, and insects, form no inconsiderable 

 items in the food supply of hawks in many places. It was therefore 

 not unreasonable to suppose that a considerable increase would have 

 been perceptible in the number of these vermin killers, but the reverse is 

 the case. In most districts with which we are acquainted, the More-pork 

 has become very much scarcer during the last few years ; the increase in 

 the number of prowling wild cats, taking up their abode in gullies and bushes, 

 has, doubtless, tended to this result ; in such places they could steal upon the 

 owl at its " secure hour," when dozing off the fatigue of midnight rambles ; 

 but the prime cause of its increasing scarceness is traceable to the alarming 

 rapidity with which so many of the forests in Southern districts have been 

 damaged or destroyed ; the effect of this change in the aspect of the country on 

 a bird so arboreal as Athene Novm Zelandice can be readily appreciated, 

 delighting, as it does, in the shelter of the densest shade, wherein to pass its 

 many hours of inactivity and repose. 



Although the living figure of our owl may be unknown to most persons, 

 from the nature of its habits, yet few, perhaps very few, of the older settlers 

 are unacquainted with the human-like cry of the More-pork. The distinctness 

 of this call has conferred the name by which this useful bird is generally 

 known throughout every part of the country, and for a similar reason the same 

 name has been bestowed on a Podargus in Australia. As soon as night begins 

 to spread its darkening shadows over our brief twilight, this active creature 

 sets out on its hunting excursions, roaming over field and gully with soft, 



