xxii INTRODUCTION. 



the Tuakitoto and Kaitangata lakes, in the Clatha district, Otago. They attracted the attention of the settlers, 

 because in form, colour, cry, and manner of flight they differed widely from any kind of Duck indigenous to 

 that part of New Zealand. After much trouble I succeeded in shooting three specimens. All of these 1 care- 

 fully skinned and preserved. The first I forwarded to Dunedin by Mr. J. P. Maitland, to be placed in the 

 Provincial Museum of Otago; and from this specimen the description was taken which appears in the 

 ' Proceedings of the Otago Institute/ I may mention that these birds utter a low, plaintive, whistling cry, 

 which they constantly repeat while on the wing. Having a turn for bird-stuffing, I set up the second of my 

 three specimens, and gave it to my uncle, the Hon. F. S. Pillans; and it is now in his house at Myres, Inch 

 Clutha, in the swamp opposite to which place I obtained the specimens. On my way to England, in October 

 1871, I left the third specimen at Wellington, in the care of Dr. Hector, to be presented to the Museum in 

 that city. 



" There was no appreciable difference in the size of the three specimens ; so that either the male and female 



of this species are alike, or all the birds I shot chanced to be of the same sex If these birds are 



really natives of such warm latitudes as the north coast of Australia, they must be very hardy and easily accli- 

 matized; for, a few weeks after they were first seen in Otago, there was a fall of several inches of snow. This 

 sudden change of climate, combined with the hardships of a long flight, would lead one to suppose that they 

 would be in a very poor condition; but the contrary was the case, though it is possible that they may have 

 lingered somewhere on the west coast, and so recovered their flesh after their long sea-flight, before they came 

 as far east as the Molyneux. The birds I obtained were in fair condition, and were excellent eating, being 

 dark in the flesh and of a gamy flavour, though a little dry, which I attributed to their having been denuded 

 of their skins some time before they were cooked." 



Fam. Pkocellariid^e. In treating of this extensive group I have received much assistance 

 from Dr. Coues's valuable ' Monograph ; ' and in all doubtful cases I have considered it safer to 

 adopt his nomenclature. 



Mr. Potts has described, in 'The Ibis' (1873, p. 85), a supposed new species of Prion, under 

 the name of P. australis. This may be the bird referred to by Mr. Gould, whose remarks I have 

 quoted at page 311 ; but I have not yet had an opportunity of examining a specimen. 



Fam. Apterygid.cE. For obvious reasons I have endeavoured to make my account of this 

 very remarkable group of wingless birds as full and exhaustive as possible. Apart from the 

 special interest attaching to species that are rapidly expiring, the Apterygine form is so entirely 

 anomalous among existing birds, that every minute particular of natural economy and life-history 

 appears to be worth recording. 



It must be at once apparent that a close and patient study of the avifauna of such a country 

 as New Zealand cannot fail to have an important bearing on the question which claims so large a 

 share of attention among naturalists of the present day, as to the origin of species. 



It seems impossible for any one who has given even the most cursory attention to the subject 

 to doubt that such closely allied forms as Apteryx mantelli and Apteryx australis, Ocydromus earli 

 and Ocydromus australis, and the other representative species inhabiting the North and South 

 Islands respectively, have in each case sprung from a common parent, the amount of difference 

 which is now sufficient to distinguish them specifically being the result of a long-continued and 

 persistent modification in a given direction, and under conditions favourable to its permanence. 

 The only admission required in support of such an hypothesis is, that the North and South 



