206 Transactions. — Zooloriy. 



July, at which time they are very fat. They are caught by a very simple 

 artifice. The natives, having marked their principal haunts, drive rows of 

 stakes into the swampy soil at distances of a few feet. These are connected 

 by means of flax-strings, from which are suspended hair -like nooses (made 

 of the fibrous leaf of Cordyline) arranged in close succession, with the edges 

 overlapping, and placed just high enough from the ground to catch the bird's 

 head as it moves along the surface in search of food. As the swamp-hen 

 is semi-nocturnal in its habits,, being most active after dusk, it has less 

 oiDportunity of avoiding the treacherous loops. It frequents the Maori 

 plantations in considerable numbers and proves very destructive to the 

 young crops, and later in the season it plunders the potato fields and 

 kumera beds. The snaring of these birds, therefore, on this large scale, 

 answers a double purpose, inasmuch as they are excellent eating when 

 roasted in their own fat. Their eggs also are much sought after in the 

 nesting season, being esteemed as great a delicacy as "plover's eggs." 



HiMANTOPUS NOViE-ZEALANDIJil, (xOH.Zc/.— Black Stilt. 



This species, as well as the j)ied stilt, is very plentiful in the Lake 

 district. They appear to subsist chiefly on the dead gnats that float on 

 the surface of the water in the sulphur springs. The plovers are continually 

 to be seen wading about in the warm yellow water of these springs, feeding 

 on the floating scum and on the small salamander worms which abound in 

 these places. 



Anabhynchus frontalis, Quoy et Gaim. — Wry-billed Plover. 



This very peculiar bird with an asymmetrical biU is tolerably common 

 in the Bay of Plenty. They associate freely with the flocks of godwit on 

 their feeding-grounds and resting-places during the alternation of the tides. 



Aedea sykmatophoea, Gould. — White Heron. 



This stately bird appears so rarely in the North Island that the natives 

 distinguish it as " the bird seen once in a life-time." In tbe summer of 

 1865 a pair visited the Mangrove Swamp at Whangarei, and remained 

 there several weeks. The year before a pan- was seen in Whangape Lake 

 in the Lower Waikato ; in 1867 another pair frequented, for some time, the 

 marshy ground at the mouth of the Maketu Eiver, and again in 1867 a pair 

 visited the banks of the Waihi in the same district. The natives made 

 every XDOSsible effort to obtain these birds for the sake of the white plumes. 

 In both of the last- mentioned cases they succeeded in killing one of them, 

 the survivor remaining in the locality for several months, leaving only on 

 the approach of winter. 



Aedea sacra, Gmelin. — Blue Heron. 



A pah was seen by Caxjtaiu Mair on the Taupo Lake in October, 1875. 

 It is tolerably common along the shores of the Bay of Plenty. 



