163 



cats, and rats, and partly to the prevalence of the so-called " bush-fires," or burning of the runs 

 (a necessary incident of sheep-farming in a new country), the Quail has rapidly disappeared, and 

 it will ere long be numbered among the many extinct forms of animal life in New Zealand. Its 

 place, however, has been more than adequately supplied by several introduced species, all of which 

 appear to thrive well and multiply in their new home. Among these we may enumerate the 

 following as being now permanently established in the country, viz. the common English Pheasant 

 (Phasianus colchicibs), the Chinese Pheasant (P. torquatus), the Partridge (Perdix cinerea), the 

 Califomian Quail (Ortyx califomicus), and the Australian Quail (Coturnix pectoralis). The last- 

 mentioned bird closely resembles the subject of this notice both in appearance and habits ; and it 

 will be curious to observe whether it will succeed in resisting for any length of time those physical 

 conditions which have proved so fatal to the indigenous species. 



The Hon. Mr. Stafford related to me the following circumstance in illustration of the 

 suddenness with which the Quail disappeared from localities where it had once been plentiful : — 

 On one occasion about the year 1848, accompanied by two other sportsmen, he went out to his 

 own estate, about thirty miles from Nelson, for a day's Quail-shooting ; and in the course of a few 

 hours the party bagged 29| brace. In the hope of preserving the game, he prohibited any shoot- 

 ing over this ground during the following year ; but in the ensuing season, when he naturally 

 looked for some good sport, there was not a single Quail to be found ! 



Mr. Weld (the present Governor of Western Australia), about the same period, tried a similar 

 experiment on his property at Stonyhurst, but with no better success. Finding the Quails very 

 abundant in a particular locality, and being anxious to preserve them, he protected a suitable 

 cover of about 2000 acres, never allowing the sheep upon it, nor permitting fires to overrun it. 

 When this protection was first extended, there were almost incredible numbers of Quails on the 

 land; but in less than a year they had all disappeared. In 1851 Dr. Shorthand found it very 

 numerous on the open downs of Waikouaiti * ; and as late as 1861, as we learn from Dr. Haast's 

 ' Journal of Exploration in the Nelson Province,' it was " still very abundant on the grassy plains 

 of the interior, rising close to the feet of the traveller at almost every step." 



A specimen was shot by Major Mair at Whangarei in 1860; Dr. Hector reports the taking 

 of a pair at Mangawhai in 1866 ; Mr. Gilbert Mair saw one at Maketu in 1867; and the Hon. 

 J. C. Richmond met with some in the Taranaki district in the months of November and December 

 1869. These are, I believe, the last recorded instances of its occurrence in the North Island. In 

 the more retired portions of the South Island it is still occasionally to be found ; but it has 

 entirely disappeared from the settled country on the eastern side of the Alps. 



In the autumn of 1860 I met with a bevy of nine on a dry grassy ridge in the midst of some 

 shallow swamps about two miles from Kaiapoi (in the Province of Canterbury) ; and having with 

 me a good pointer, I fortunately succeeded in bagging the whole of them. They afforded capital 

 shooting, rising quickly and, after a low rapid flight of fifty yards or more in a direct line, drop- 

 ping suddenly into the grass again. The stomachs of those I opened contained green blades of 

 grass and a few bruised seeds, as well as some small fragments of quartz. The bevy consisted 

 of an adult male and female, with seven birds of the first year ; and as we may infer from the 

 circumstances under which they were found that they comprised a single family, we have some 



* Southern Districts of New Zealand, p. 187. 



