XXIV 



INTEODUCTION. 



to our Cyanorhamphus novce-zealandice. Bepresenting our Hypotcenidia philippensis there is 

 a very distinct species of Eail (H. muelleri, Bothschild), of which the only known specimen is in the 

 Natural History Museum at Stuttgart ; and, as if representing our Elasmonetta chlorotis, there is 

 a flightless Duck {Nesonetta auchlandica) frequenting the seashore as well as the streams. But 

 what is still more significant and curious, there exists in the Auckland Islands a species of 

 Merganser {M. australis), of which genus there is no representative in New Zealand, or indeed 

 anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere. The Bell-bird is there also, but seems to be absolutely 

 identical with the New Zealand form {Anthornis melanura), showing, as I think, a com- 

 paratively recent introduction. 



On Antipodes Island, as already indicated, there is a strictly endemic Parrakeet {Cyano- 

 rhamphus imicolor), a species living abundantly on this oceanic rock, but not to be met with 

 in any other part of the world, and commingling with a species (G. erythrotis) more nearly 

 approaching to the typical C. novce-zealandice. Going further south we come to Macquarie 

 Island, where there is a Bail differing so perceptibly from ordinary examples of H. philippensis 

 that Captain Hutton has proposed to distinguish it as H. macquariensis ; and, although I am not 

 prepared to concede to it distinct rank as a species, its presence there is another proof of the 

 existence of transitional forms. 



On the Snares, a group of islets about seventy miles south of the southernmost extremity of 

 New Zealand, there is a peculiar form of Bern-bird, which I have distinguished under the name 

 of Bowdleria caudata, very similar to Bowdleria punctata of New Zealand, but quite distinct as 

 a species, and being intermediate in character between the last-named bird and Bowdleria rufescens 

 of the Chatham Islands. Now, no ornithologist who has studied the subject can doubt that these 

 three closely-allied forms, although now perfectly distinct as species, have sprung from a common 

 parent-form. Curiously enough, another Chatham Island bird, the Black Bobin {Miro traversi) 

 is abundant on the Snares, although not found in any part of New Zealand. 



Then, again, the Kermadec Islands possess a Green Parrakeet {Cyanorhamphus cyaneus) 

 which Count Salvadori declares to be distinct ; and, although many naturalists will insist that 

 this and the other island forms are, for the most part, local varieties of the well-known Cyano- 

 rhamphus novce-zealandice, their very existence as such is the best evidence of the constant 

 operation of the law of development by variation and the survival of the fittest. 



Even the sea-birds, whose range is practically unrestricted, furnish additional and, indeed, 

 very important evidence. Mr. Bothschild, with the aid of the late Mr. Salvin, our great 

 authority on the Petrel family, made an important investigation of the Albatroses of the 

 Southern Hemisphere. Talking over the result with me, he said : " Why, every group of islands 

 seems to have its own species of Albatros ! " And, in a sense, this is true. Here we have birds 

 enjoying the freedom of the wide ocean— commingling daily on their great hunting-fields on 

 the face of the deep ; and then, on the approach of the reproductive season, separating them- 

 selves, according to their species, and repairing to their own island-nurseries to breed. As far as 

 our information at present goes, Campbell Island is held exclusively by my new species D. regia, 

 the noblest member of the group. The Auckland Islands are occupied by thousands of 

 Diomedea exulans, with the exception of a small colony of D. regia breeding in a remote 

 corner of the main island, and at a somewhat earlier season — according to Captain Fairchild's 

 observations, four or five weeks earlier. On the Snares Diomedea bulleri reigns supreme. The 

 Albatros breeding on the Sisters, some outlying islands in the Chatham group, on which the 

 Maoris are said to have collected as many as a thousand young birds in one season, is probably 

 Diomedea melanophrys, which is plentiful in that latitude ; but I have not yet been able to 

 obtain any specimens from that locality for identification. The breeding-place of Diomedea 

 salvini, Bothschild, is apparently the Bounty Islands. 



