the Wombat. 71 



The wingless birds so characteristic of New Zealand are 

 rapidly becoming extinct ; the Government is doing what it 

 can to preserve them, but they are so easily run down by dogs 

 that they must speedily disappear. I have seen but one Kiwi, 

 and that I am not quite sure of as the light was fading, and I 

 had but a passing glimpse of it as the bird crossed the road 

 in front of my horse ; but one frequently meets with " wekas," 

 (as the Maories call them) a rich brown wingless bird that 

 runs with amazing swiftness, it is somewhat smaller than the 

 " mallee hen." In the swamps are numbers of " coot," or 

 pukakis (here called), they call sometimes at night very much 

 like a " curlew." Teal too are plentiful on all the rivers, and 

 wood pigeons are seen in great numbers, when the " tawa " 

 (a tree which bears a fruit like a damson) is in season, 

 but like our Wonga pigeons they are stupidly tame, and 

 will sit to be shot despite any noise ; in fact if one fails 

 to bring the bird down first shot it will frequently sit 

 for another or simply fly to the next tree. The bird is like a 

 large edition of the "blue rock" with unusually long and 

 strong tail feathers. The " boo-book owl " is very common ; 

 on a still night one hears their plaintive call in all directions. 

 These are some very scant notes of native birds found here ; 

 that the district is well suited for birds is shown by the 

 manner in which imported birds thrive and multiply. 



English pheasants, California!! quail, skylarks, gold- 

 finches, yellow-hammers, sparrows, thrushes and starlings are 

 seen in great numbers and do well, in fact so well that they 

 are rapidly becoming a nuisance. The general rule through 

 nature is that when the conditions are so favourable that a 

 thing will multiply too rapidly, something is brought into 

 existence that will keep it in check, yet here we have a 

 country in which spiders and night-flying insects are a perfect 

 pest, but there are few Insessores ; swallows are never here ; 

 bats and night jars are very scarce, although owls are plenti- 

 ful ; there are neither " newts " or frogs to keep in check the 

 pond-life, and lizards are almost unknown. There are no 

 native mammals excepting only a few insignificant rats ; that 

 a country so wonderfully fitted to support a large and varied 

 list of fauna should yet be so poor in types and numbers is to 

 me unaccountable. In entomology too we are poor. Butter- 

 flies and moths are poorly represented, but we have some 

 very curious beetles. Weevils are in very great variety, 

 some with ridiculously elongated snouts, longicorns, big and 

 little in great numbers, in fact all wood borers are well repre- 

 sented ; then too there are many quaint and curious species of 

 walking sticks (diapheromera), some measuring 8 or 9 inches 

 in length, with all the disguises so distinctive of the family; 

 the true mantis, however, is not plentiful, and the specimens 

 one meets with are as a rule insignificant and of a uniform 



