62 



The Black Wood-hen appears to inhabit all the west-coast Sounds. My first examples were 

 received from Sir James Hector, who collected a good many specimens during his geological 

 exploration of that region in 1865. At Dusky Sound, at night, I heard the cry of the Wood-hen 

 (probably 0. brachypterus) on all sides. The note does not differ from that of the other species. 



An adult and chick in my collection (received from Marklund) came from Table Hill 

 on Stewart Island. Of the latter I took the following note : " Apparently about a month old (end 

 of November) : covered with thick and long blackish-brown down, which has evidently taken the 

 place of an earlier growth — short, woolly, and of a greyish-black colour — vestiges of which are 

 still to be seen on the back of the neck and above the shoulders ; feathers of a blackish- 

 brown colour are beginning to appear on the shoulders and on the sides of the neck and body, the 

 latter barred with paler«brown." 



I have more lately obtained a living pair from the west-coast Sounds. Like the other species, 

 they are almost omnivorous, and large feeders, and I have noticed that they have a great partialitv 



THE WOOD-HEN'S NEST. 



for the common garden-snail, breaking the shell by a prod of their powerful bills and tearing out 

 the contents after the maimer of a true expert. Doubtless the common Wood-hen would do the 

 same, in which case it would be a most valuable introduction into gardens infested with snails, as 

 are most of those in New Zealand. 



The Black Wood-hen has all the habits of the more common species, so fully described 

 elsewhere (vol. ii., pp. 106-111), but it has a peculiar note, frequently emitted, and responsively, 

 when the birds are together, so much like the clucking of domestic hens, that it is difficult 

 to believe one is not in the vicinity of a poultry yard. 



Captain Hutton writes to me : " Mr. H. Travers showed me two specimens of my 0. finschi 

 from Lake Te Anau. I recognised the bird at once, and think that it deserves to be separated as 

 a variety of 0. australis, if not a separate species." My view is that the so-called 0. finschi is, in 

 reality, the young of 0. brachypterus ; the plumage of the immature bird assuming a more or 

 less spotted character. 



