306 Transactions. — Zoology. 



like the ears of a scallop shell (fig. 16, nest open). The outside of the lid has 

 no tilii'g, but is formed of soil cemented together, and has remains of lichens 

 on it (fig. 17, vertical view). The hd fits tight as a flap, and has no 

 markings on its under side. The soil of this sod is a light brown loam ; 

 and an odd peculiarity in this nest is, that a space for the nest and for the 

 lid has evidently been excavated (fig. 1 5) out of the sod or soil so as to allow 

 of the lid opening back, which it does freely without spring, and remains 

 open. 



Art. XLIII. — Notes on some Changes in the Fauna of Otagu. 

 By E. Gillies, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 11th September, 1877.] 

 The writings of Darwin and others have made us familiar with the theory 

 of natural selection, and given a new impetus and a definite meaning to the 

 investigation of biological phenomena which previously were looked upon 

 as isolated unrelated facts. Amidst all the turmoil and strife which the 

 enunciation of this hypothesis provoked, jperhaxDS there was nothing which 

 excited less dispute than the assigning of the passing away of ancient 

 races, and their being supplanted by new and more vigorous sj)ecies, to the 

 principle of the survival of the fittest, and there was no class of facts more 

 freely and frankly admitted as such, than those which in such countries as 

 Australia, South America, etc., demonstrate that the indigenous species 

 have very quickly retired before and been supplanted by foreign introduced 

 forms. It may, therefore, seem almost superfluous to supplement these facts 

 in any way. But I am inclined to think that most people are not sufficiently 

 impressed with them, and hence fail to grasp their meaning. At any rate 

 I am quite sure that to those who have seen and observed similar pheno- 

 mena, these changes appeal with a cogency which, to the ordmary reader is 

 a-wanting. The forms of life which we see around us now in New Zealand 

 are not the forms which peopled and clothed our hills and valleys, woods and 

 plains, even a quarter of a century ago. The change, though rapid, and in 

 some cases complete, has been silent and continuous, and hence has escaped 

 observation, and it is only by casting the memory back to what was the 

 state of matters years ago that we realize how much the conditions of things 

 have changed. Hence it is, too, that a detailed and exact record of such 

 changes is impossible, and that we even now find a difficulty in obtaining 

 such reliable clata as is desirable for our purpose. Were it possible to 

 foresee what forms were likely to be modified or were becomuig extinct, then 



