70 THE WOMBAT. 



NEW ZEALAND NATURAL HISTORY 

 NOTES. 



Dear Mr. Editor, 



Your letter duly reached me apropos notes on some 

 natural history topic for your journal, and I am only too 

 glad to try and send you something. I hope ere long 

 to send the College a small collection of local woods with 

 a few notes thereon, for the forests are most varied and 

 gorgeous, and contain many valuable woods at present 

 little known However, in the meantime, I send a few notes 

 relating to the local fauna, not at all scientific, for I cannot 

 lay my hands on any books that deal with New Zealand natural 

 history. Vague as these notes must be, still I hope they may 

 prove of some little interest to readers of the College journal. 



The district of Pohangina is somewhere about three 

 degrees to the south of Geelong, situated in the south of the 

 North Island of New Zealand. We are some 20 miles from 

 the sea as the crow flies, and some 600 feet above the sea 

 level ; the average temperature is about two degrees lower 

 than in Melbourne, but we catch the tail end of the Pacific 

 rains, which means a rainfall of about 55 inches. 



During the two years we have been here, I have been 

 continually struck by the poverty of animal life where one 

 would think the most exuberant life would exist. The forests 

 of Victoria, which are spoken of as silent and forsaken, are 

 veritable hives of life compared with those of New Zealand. 



The rufous-fantail is fairly plentiful and does its best t° 

 liven up things, but is silent for the most part of the year- 

 Another old friend is the " silver-eye," which is if anything 

 more plentiful than with you. Then we have too what looks 

 like the " white-breasted robin," only if anything the white is 

 more pronounced on the throat, and the bird is somewhat 

 smaller. 



The " Tui " (Maori name) or " parson bird," a well-known 

 New Zealand bird, is very plentiful, and really a very beautiful 

 bird, its note is liquid and varied, and it moves about the 

 trees very much in the manner of your " Garrulous Honey- 

 eater," it is of a brilliant raven black, with a perfect little 

 parson's tie of two white feathers which stand well out from 

 the neck ; it comes down the dense gullies with a whizzing 

 swoop like the swoop of a magpie. 



Another curious bird is the " Caw-Caw " (so called), a dirty 

 black parrot about half the size of a black cockatoo ; it has a 

 harsh mournful grating call, climbs about the trees in search 

 of fruit in a lazy, sleepy kind of way, and is the reverse of 

 shy. 



