



138 



and on the tips of the white secondary coverts. The specimen, which has been in a private 

 collection at Auckland for some ten years, came originally from the Little Barrier Island. 

 The indefatigable collector, Mr. A. Eeischek, spent a considerable time on the Little Barrier, 

 and shot a number of specimens for local and foreign museums, but I was assured by him that 

 he did not destroy them all ; and I do not think any collector has sojourned on the island 

 since his time. There is therefore just a chance of saving the species by timely 

 intervention. 



An Auckland collector has more recently been on a visit, for a few hours only, to the 

 Little Barrier Island for the purpose of getting specimens of this rare bird, several of which 

 were obtained. This is the last refuge of the species, and unless the strong hand of the 

 Government is invoked for its protection, and that at once, the Stitch -Bird will soon be lost 

 to us for ever. Let us hope that steps will be taken to save the colony from this reproach. 



Order PASSEKIFORMES.] 



[Family MELIPHAGIDJE. 



ANTH011NIS MELANU1U 



(KOEIMAKO.) 



Anthornis melanura (Sparrm.), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. i., p. 85. 



When I undertook to write the history of our native birds, one of the chief objects I 

 set before myself was to make the subject as attractive and instructive as possible to the 

 rising generation of colonists. The ' Manual of the Birds of New Zealand,' which I 

 brought out at a later date, with descriptive diagrams, &c, was prepared avowedly for 

 that purpose. It was therefore with much pleasure that I recently received a letter from 

 a prominent member of the House of Representatives, saying that he had urged upon the 

 Government to republish, with my consent, the more important of the plates in the 'Birds 

 of New Zealand,' for distribution among the public schools of the colony. I replied, of course, 

 appreciatively, and in due time received an answer in which he said: "T read your letter with 

 great interest, and am very glad to see that you are so much in sympathy with the movement 

 to make our school children more familiar with the beautiful bird-life of this country. Your 

 book has created a wide-spread interest in the subject. Indeed, I firmly believe that to your 

 book is chiefly due the strong public feeling which has found practical expression in the efforts 

 now being made to preserve, by means of special legislation, the unique bird-life of this country." 

 One of our best local observers, Mr. W. W. Smith, in a communication to the ' Ibis ' 

 (1893, pp. 509-21), writing more particularly of this species, expresses himself thus : — 



Although the New Zealand avifauna is the most perfectly known division of our zoological province, new 

 facts in the life-history of some of the species are occasionally presented to the ornithologist. Sir Walter 

 Bailer's charming delineations of bird-life in all its peculiar forms in New Zealand, together with Mr. Keule- 

 mans' exquisitely finished and life-like pictures of many species illustrating Buller's work, have produced an 

 ever-increasing and lasting interest in our remarkable birds. If Mr. Keulemans had studied bird-life in forests 



