254 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
are somewhat numerous, have species which are allied to the 
crows, starlings, tits, honey-birds, thrushes, and especially to the 
warblers. The greater number of these are peculiar to the 
country, but many can be named which are also found in 
Australia or in Polynesia. One bird (Heterolocha acutivostris) is 
of a type quite peculiar to New Zealand, and has no near resem- 
blance to any other known form. 
In this fauna parrots of different genera occur, namely, one 
parroquet (Platycercus Nove-Zealandie and its variety P. auriceps) ; 
the nestors, birds of a very characteristic type, confined to New 
Zealand and Norfolk Island ; and, strangest of all the psittacide, 
the great nocturnal parrot (Sivigops habroptilus ). 
Ofthecursorial birds ( Struthionde),the apteryx with absolutely 
rudimentary wings and a long curved beak, is still extant. But 
the most remarkable New Zealand birds are now extinct ; these 
were allied to the ostrich and cassowary, and were as tall asa 
giraffe. The first inhabitants of New Zealand knew them and 
called them Moas; traditions have preserved the memory of 
these extraordinary creatures, and their name still lives in the 
Maori language. Some forty years ago a number of bones of 
these gigantic birds, collected from caverns, river-beds, and 
swamps, were taken to London, and from these materials Prof. 
R. Owen was enabled to build up the skeletons of several spe- 
cies, which he classed under the genera Dinornis and Palapteryx. 
Subsequent researches have brought to light considerable quan- 
tities of the bones of these birds from nearly all parts of New 
Zealand. From an excavation in the Glenmark swamp, near 
the Waipara river, in Wellington Province, Prof. Julius von 
Haast obtained the bones of 171 individuals. Feathers, tendons, 
and fragments of the skin of Dznornis have also been met with ; 
so that there is reason to believe that the extinction of these 
birds is very recent. The hope of finding living specimens of 
Dinornis or Palapteryx in some isolated locality still exists among 
naturalists. During the time that these gigantic birds were so 
prevalent in these lands there lived also a bird-of-prey of colossal 
proportions (Harpagormis moovet, Haast). 
The Auckland Islands appear, both by their flora and fauna, 
to be absolutely inseparable from the southern part of New Zea- 
land. In spite of its inhospitable climate, the storm-beaten 
Macquarrie Island is inhabited by the New Zealand parroquet. 
It is difficult to imagine that a bird so sedentary in its habits 
had ever crossed the sea, a distance of 500 or 600 miles, to alight 
upon one of the most desolate spots in the world. In Campbell 
Island, though less visited by icebergs, there are neither parrots 
nor any other terrestrial birds, but the vegetation offers a close 
resemblance to the Auckland Islands and the colder parts of 
New Zealand, while possessing some peculiarities of its own. 
We have little information regarding the life upon either Bounty 
or Antipodes Islands, but we know that on the latter Phoymium 
