will afford good shooting all over the country. Fourteen years ago I brought from England and 

 turned out on the Papaitonga Lake a number of Mallards, which bred freely and spread in 

 the first season to the Horowhenua Lake and the adjacent lagoons. The various Acclimatisa- 

 tion Societies have been doing the same ; and now the Seddon Government, much to their 

 credit, have introduced a larger contingent, a fair share going to Papaitonga because of its close 

 protection. 



An exceptionally large male specimen shot by my son Walter on Lake Papaitonga, and 

 now in my collection, gave the following measurements : Extent of wings, 32 inches ; length, 

 24 inches. Feet dull gamboge-yellow. 



Mr. W. W. Smith has made some additions to the abnormal varieties mentioned by me. He 

 writes (' Trans. N. Z. S.,' xxix., p. 253) :— 



I have now to record several more varied forms which have for several years frequented the lakes in the 

 public domains at Ashburton [under Mr. Smith's care as custodian]. When the shooting-season opens in 

 April, large flocks of Grey Ducks and other native species assemble on the lakes in the Domain and remain 

 during the winter. As there is not sufficient food for them in the Domain, they repair in the evening to the 

 river-bed and adjacent swamps, to feed during the night, and return in the early morning to spend the day un- 

 molested under the willow-trees growing on the islands in the lakes. For several years I have observed their 

 arrival in April, and have noticed the occurrence of any individuals exhibiting colours diverging from the 

 normal type. In July, 1892, a fine individual inhabited the lower lake, having its head, throat, and breast pale 

 buff. The scapulars were beautifully mottled with white feathers, which made the bird conspicuous among 

 the large flock of Ducks resting on the lake. During the winter of 1894, a partial albino inhabited the Domain 

 waters. The back, breast, and scapular region were of a faded white, while portions of the neck were lightly 

 studded with white feathers. The bird remained very timid throughout the winter, and never came to 

 the banks of the lake with the others to feed on the oats or wheat we scattered there for them every morning. 

 In the same year we observed a bird with the whole plumage tending to melanism. When swimming 

 leisurely about the lake, or when resting on the bank in the sunshine, the plumage appeared to be of a lustrous 

 black. I have frequently watched the bird preening its feathers, and while thus engaged the under-parts 

 appeared to be much paler than in normally coloured birds. Last winter a fine individual with the primary 

 wing-feathers pure white remained on the lakes from April until the 8th June. When they became frozen over 



gentlemen (Sir Cracroft Wilson being one of them) in this Island in 1867. The Black Swan is prodigiously productive 

 in the remote isolated lake-districts. Two years ago I removed three sittings of eggs — two of six and one of four — from 

 a single pair of Black Swans, in four months. They commence to hatch their young in July and they generally rear two 

 and three broods of from four to six in each year. Seeing that the Black Swan is so extremely and so unfailingly 

 reproductive, there is no question in my mind that the large flocks of these birds now existing on the larger lakes in New 

 Zealand are due to this cause and not to migration from Australia. Previous to their introduction by you and 

 the Acclimatisation Society in 1863-65-67, Black Swans were unknown in New Zealand. Notwithstanding their power 

 of making long-sustained flights and the strong westerly winds frequently blowing across the Tasman Sea, I do not 

 believe that any of these birds have ever crossed the thousand or eleven hundred miles of intervening ocean. In periods 

 of protracted drought in their native home, they would be compelled to migrate long distances in search of sustenance, 

 which they could do in stages on the great Australian continent, but never, I feel convinced, to the extent of crossing 

 the sea to New Zealand." 



Mr. A. Hamilton writes (June 29th, 1903) : "Jennings left this morning by the ' Hinemoa,' for the Southern 

 Islands, and he has asked me to reply to you for him in the matter of the Black Swan. He is of opinion that the birds 

 now so plentiful on all our sheets of water are descendants of the introduced birds. The number of nests that can be 

 found around the Kaitangata lagoon at the proper season is very great, and would in a few years mean thousands 

 of birds. He thinks 300 or 400 nests a season quite within the mark in this place alone ! I know that more 

 than twenty years ago hundreds of Black Swans might be seen on the Napier Swamp at certain seasons, although I do 

 not think many bred there, as I never saw many cygnets." 



I may mention that on my last visit to the west coast sounds, in 1895, I found the Black Swan fairly established 

 there. I paid a visit, with Lord Kanfurly, to Lake Ada, in Milford Sound, and several times saw a flock of them on 

 the wing. Captain Fairchild informed us that they had been there several years. 



