18 



large number of specimens were obtained in the future, I should be inclined to treat in the same 

 way the rufous-coloured Kiwi (" Eed Kiwi" of the Maoris), of which an account is given in 

 the ' Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii., p. 310. In this case I was able to show, at any rate, 

 that the characters were congenital ; a chick having been captured with the parent bird showing 

 the same peculiarities, in colour and open texture of plumage. But that does not carry us far 

 enough, such an occurrence being not uncommon among ordinary albinoes. 



I received four specimens from Waitara in October, 1896. The smallest of the adults proved 

 to be a female, and the ovary contained a cluster of undeveloped eggs. Two of them were mere 

 chicks, and were very dark in colour. 



Of late a good many examples have been obtained in the wooded district south of New 

 Plymouth, which is fast being occupied by settlers. Before I left New Zealand, a nest containing 

 two eggs was discovered by a man who was felling bush on the property of Messrs. Stretton 

 and Jobson. These specimens are now in the museum at Wanganui, and one of them, before 

 being emptied of its contents, was found to weigh 15 oz. 90 gr. 



Like the other members of this wingless group, Apteryx bulleri is suffering from the intro- 

 duction into the country of stoats and weasels, and I fear that a few years, at most, will see the 

 species extinct.* 



The late Mrs. Halcombe (a daughter of the late William Swainson, the celebrated orni- 

 thologist and advocate of the quinary system), to whom I am indebted for several specimens of 

 this species, wrote me from Waitara, on December 31st, 1901 :— " I have just got a hen Kiwi 

 with two little, wee chicks. It seems that in good years they begin to lay their eggs very early 

 and continue the breeding operations till as late as June. Everything seems to depend on 

 weather." 



* Some time ago it was officially notified in the Government ' Gazette ' that ferrets, stoats, and weasels are protected 

 by law, their destruction exposing the offenders to a severe penalty ! As a fitting commentary upon this the 

 following paragraph appeared a few days later in the ' New Zealand Times ' : — " Stoats are reported to be very troublesome 

 in the Hawera district. One settler reports that sixteen eggs out of eighteen were destroyed in one nest by stoats last 

 week." And a correspondent of the ' Evening Post,' under the nom de plume of " Bushman," commenting on the Gazette 

 notification, wrote : " I should like to know when this craze of a few faddists is going to cease, for it seems to me about 

 time that some one entered a strong protest against the wholesale introduction of these pests into our beautiful adopted 

 country. Any one who, like myself, has kept ferrets for years, must know that the habits of the animal are entirely 

 against its ever doing any real good as an exterminator of rabbits, for, unlike a cat, a ferret will not hunt for the sake 

 of hunting ; and, as it almost always lays up and sleeps for two or three days after a heavy meal, this must militate 

 against its usefulness. Again, ferrets and their congenitors will hardly ever touch fur, if they can obtain- feathers, 

 which is the reason that in many districts, where pheasants and quail were once plentiful, they are now nearly extinct. 

 And the last, but greatest, evil is that ferrets are, and have been for years, killing hundreds, and I might say thousands, 

 of lambs yearly all over the country. Now, I would ask, is it any use proclaiming such vermin as ' protected animals,' 

 when the a.bove facts are well known? Is it not merely inviting people to break the law? I have for years killed 

 every ferret, stoat, or weasel that I could get a chance at ; and many others that I know do the same, or we should 

 have long since been plagued by a worse pest than the rabbits ever were." 



