EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 471 



Mb. J. Drummond, in his weekly contributions, " In touch with 

 Nature," appearing in the ' Lyttelton Times,' has recently written on 

 the New Zealand Merganser (Mergits australis), from which the 

 following extracts are taken : — 



" Very little is known of the New Zealand Merganser, and those 

 who go down to the Auckland Islands, where this bird lives, would 

 do good service to the Dominion by observing and recording its 

 habits. It is seldom seen in the coastal and open waters around the 

 Auckland Islands, but spends most of its time in the sheltered 

 harbours and the streams and creeks where it obtains its food. 



"The southern Merganser has been protected for many years, 

 but even when it might be killed with impunity few specimens found 

 their way into public or private bird collections. The first specimen 

 was taken to Europe by the naturalists on Dumont D'Urville's 

 Antarctic Expedition, which touched at the Auckland Islands nearly 

 seventy-five years ago. The skin they brought back was placed in 

 the Museum of Paris and for many years was the only one known. 

 About thirty years ago Baron Von Hugel bought a pair of skins in 

 Invercargill from a man who had returned from a surveying trip to 

 the Auckland Islands. When the Earl of Eanfurly visited the 

 islands in 1904, he obtained several very beautiful specimens, which 

 now are in the British Museum. There are specimens in the Otago, 

 Canterbury, and Wellington Museums. The Hon. W. Eothschild 

 has three in his famous museum at Tring, England, there is one 

 specimen in the University Museum at Cambridge, and there are 

 two in the Imperial Museum at Vienna. 



" Eecent reports show that the bird now is rare even in places it 

 delights to haunt. It is some time since news was received of a 

 living specimen having been seen. The Elightless Duck (Nesonetta 

 aucklanclica) of the Auckland Islands, on the other hand, seems still 

 to be fairly plentiful. This is a true Duck, but its wings are so short 

 that it can fly only a very short distance. There was a belief for 

 many years that it was absolutely flightless, but Captain Bollons, of 

 the ' Tukanekai,' who has had many opportunities of observing these 

 Ducks, states that they can fly to their nests, which are made in 

 holes. These holes, sometimes, are in the face of a cliff, often 

 between fifteen and twenty feet above sea-level. He has seen the 

 Ducks rise from the ground at the foot of a cliff, and, with the use of 

 their wings, go into the holes, a performance which an absolutely 

 flightless bird could not attempt. He has tried to reach the nests 

 with a ladder, but has been unsuccessful. To compensate for the 



