THE ZOOLOGIST. 



EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 



" It is w'lih pleasure that I send you,"'' for your natural history 

 column in New Zealand, some notes on Notornis hochstetteri," writes 

 Dr. A. B. Meyer, of Hohenzollern Street, Berlin. Dr. Meyer was 

 formerly director of the Dresden Museum, which is the fortunate 

 possessor of the third Notornis, and it was he who changed the bird's 

 specific name from mantelU to hochstetteri. " The specimen in the 

 Dresden Museum," he says, " was captured alive by a dog towards 

 the close of the year 1879, and was on sale in Dunedin, but the New 

 Zealand Government of that day was not up to its task, apparently 

 because no naturalist put the matter in the right light. The skin 

 and skeleton were then sent to London, where they were on sale for 

 two years without finding a buyer. At last they were offered to me 

 for the Dresden Museum. The institution was known in England, 

 where I had many personal friends, as a museum with an ambition 

 to rise. I did not dare to spend the money of the Government 

 in purchasing the specimen of one bird, although nearly extinct, but 

 I found a patron, who furnished me with the funds. As far as 

 I remember, I bought the Notornis for £110, but I do not remember 

 whether it was by auction or in the ordinary way of a transaction. 

 Some time after it came into the possession of the museum as a gift 

 of the patron who supplied the funds, I received a letter from the 

 New Zealand Government, asking me to surrender the specimen for 

 the price paid by the museum, and a collection of New Zealand birds 

 as well. Of course, I refused the offer. In any case, the rules of the 

 museum would not have allowed me to accept it. I named the 

 species Notornis hochstetteri, and described the skeleton and the skin 

 in scientific journals. The bird has also been dealt with by the late 

 Professor T. J. Parker, Dr. W. B. Benham, Sir Walter Buller, and 

 Messrs. Hutton and Drummond, and the Hon. Thomas Mackenzie 

 wrote a letter entitled ' The Eare New" Zealand Bird ' to the London 

 ' Times ' in October, 1898. You wnll probably find something of 

 interest in my paper on ' The Eggs of the Moa ' in ' The Ibis,' 1903, 



* James Drummond, F.L.S., i&c, who provides the articles •' In Touch 

 with Nature." 



