NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 343 



almost impossible to net them, as the wind picks them up the 

 moment they leave the flower, and whirls them away some ten 

 or twenty feet." Major T. Broun, who has worked out the 

 Coleoptera, has formed the following conclusion : — " Assuming 

 that a considerable area of land formerly extended from the 

 Auckland Islands towards Patagonia, the New Zealand Islands 

 must have formed a portion of it." Mr. H. E. Hogg, from a 

 study of the Arachnidcs, has formed a similar opinion : — " The 

 supposition of an ancient land-link between South America, 

 Australia, and Southern Africa is more or less of a necessity in 

 order to account for the present distribution of creatures which 

 it is difficult to believe could have reached their respective 

 habitats by any other means." 



Mr. E. E. Waite has dealt with the vertebrates. " There are 

 no reptiles on the islands." The mammalian fauna is small, 

 and represented by " species of cetaceans, by two kinds of 

 resident Seals, and occasional visitors or stragglers of the 

 order." The account of the birds is stated to be very in- 

 adequate for several reasons, one of which was a rule of the ex- 

 pedition that neither birds nor their eggs were to be taken. The 

 Albatrosses Diomedea exulans and D. regia and the Mollymawk 

 (D. melanophrys) breed on the islands, and some fine photo- 

 graphs of these birds and their nests are given. The " Flight- 

 less Duck" (Nesonetta aucklandica) is rather misnamed, as, 

 according to Capt. Bollons, " these ducks are able to fly for short 

 distances, and, as a matter of fact, they reach their nesting- 

 sites by this means." The most interesting discussion in the 

 description of the fishes is the disinclination of Mr. Waite to 

 accept Galaxias b7'evipinnis as a marine species, as it is con- 

 sidered by some very high authorities. Dr. Chilton has fully 

 enumerated and described the Crustacea. One interesting fact 

 in this communication relates to the genus Parorchestia. The 

 male of P. sylvicola on the main islands of New Zealand is 

 very rare, nearly all the specimens captured being females ; yet 

 in the three species of the genus found on the Auckland and 

 Campbell Islands the males appear to be almost as abundant as 

 the females. 



The botanical and geological sections do not appertain to 

 our pages, and we have been unable to refer to the contributions 



