XXX 



INTRODUCTION. 



Let it be understood, therefore, that many of our indigenous species are hopelessly doomed ; 

 and every true naturalist must grieve over it, as an irreparable loss to science, for some of them 

 are the relics of perhaps the oldest fauna now living on the earth. 



As I have pointed out elsewhere, looking to the fragmentary character of the New Zealand 

 fauna generally — the almost total absence of Mammalia and Amphibia, the phenomenal develop- 

 ment of wingless birds that existed till quite recent times, and are now represented by the various 

 species of Apteryx and the highly specialised forms of non-volant Bails, besides the many other 

 endemic genera of land birds, and the great paucity of reptiles and insects — we must conclude 

 that it is but the remnant of an ancient fauna, perhaps the most ancient in the world, which 

 formerly occupied a very much wider area of the earth's surface. I never write on this subject 

 without thinking of the words of my friend, Professor Newton, of Cambridge, in an address 

 which he gave to the British Association in 1887. Eef erring to the rapid extinction, even 

 at that time, of many of the New Zealand birds, he said : "I would ask you to bear in mind 

 that these indigenous species are, w T ith scarcely an exception, peculiar to that country, and, from 

 every scientific point of view, of the most instructive character. They supply a link with the past 

 that, once lost, can never be recovered. . . . The forms that we are allowing to be killed off, 

 being almost without exception ancient forms, are just those that will teach us more of the 

 way in which life has appeared on the globe than any other recent forms." 



Among the species that have actually become extinct since the colonisation of these islands 

 must be placed, first and foremost, the New Zealand Quail. It is difficult now to form an idea of 

 the extreme abundance of this fine bird in all suitable localities in the early days of settlement. 

 Sir David Monro recorded having shot forty brace in the course of an afternoon in the suburbs of 

 Nelson, and, at that time, the bird was equally abundant in Canterbury. The introduced Brown 

 Quail of Australia is often mistaken now by the settlers for the indigenous bird, to which it bears 

 a general resemblance, but no specimen of our true Quail has been heard of for close on five-and 

 twenty years. The regret one naturally feels at the loss of this form is tempered by the fact just 

 mentioned that in Australia we have still surviving a species (Goturnix pectoral-is) so nearly allied 

 to our bird that it takes the eye of an expert to distinguish them. Another bird which is verging 

 on extinction, if not already extinct, is the celebrated Notoruis mdntelM, of which only four 

 perfect specimens have been obtained, a period of thirty years intervening between the capture of 

 the first and the third, and a further period of nearly twenty years before the capture of the last. 

 It may yet linger in the interior of the South Island, but with the spread of settlement that 

 hope is becoming every year a more slender one. It is a huge flightless brevipennate Bail, little 

 adapted by nature to cope with the new conditions of existence. 



Another Ealline form, the Wood-hen, which till within the last few years was extremely 

 abundant in all parts of the country, is fast following suit. There are 1iYe recognised species in 

 New Zealand, and of these, the one formerly inhabiting the Canterbury Plains (Ocydromus 

 australis) was probably the most abundant. The North Island Wood-hen (Ocydromus greyi) was 

 also very plentiful in all suitable localities. It was always the first visitor to the settler's tent, 

 and its shrill cry — exactly like that of the European Curlew — was one of the most familiar of 

 country sounds, especially towards evening. Now in most parts of the country its voice is seldom 

 or never heard ; it is becoming an extremely scarce bird, both North and South, whilst from some 

 districts, where it formerly abounded, it has entirely disappeared. For a time the conditions of 

 settlement appeared to be favourable to its existence, and it was perceptibly increasing, but the 

 introduced natural enemies have proved too much for it, and the wholesale use of poisoned grain 

 for the destruction of wild rabbits in all the settled districts has become another factor in its rapid 

 extermination. This is much to be regretted, for, from a scientific point of view, the Wood-hen 

 is a most interesting bird. It is furnished with ample wings, but, owing to their peculiar 

 construction, they are useless for purposes of flight ; and, under the new T conditions of life, the 



