Bird Notes from Far and Near. 
237 
Lette in Pisa alio sezione di zoologia della prima reiiiiioue 
<iella scieiizali ilaliaiii il 7 Ottohre 1839, Doctor Carlo 
Passerini, aggregato al professore di Zoologie dell'l e. r. iiiiiseo di 
storia iiatnrale di Fireiize. 
FlKENZE. 
TiPOGKAPHIA PKZZATI. 
1 84 1. E. HOPKINSON. 
JS11& Motes from jfau auJ5 Mear. 
NATURE NOTES. 
The Birds of Two Countries, 
some quaint australians. 
By James Dnuiiiiiond, F.T-.S., F.Z.S. 
Although there is reniaikahle difference between the l)irds 
of New Zealand and of Australia if each avifauna is regarded 
collectively, there is quite a long list of individual birds that are 
represented in both countries. Several birds popularl}' believed 
to be peculiar to New Zealand are common in Australia. As a 
matter of fact, New Zealand is indebted to Australia for some 
of the most attractive members of her bird-land 
Some Australians, however, must have crossed the Tasman Sea 
and come to New Zealand by a direct route. Tlie practicability of 
this extraordinar\' migration over the water is demonstrated by 
the arrival of the little White-eye within historical times. As 
the ages passed, isolation and a life free from care brought about by 
changes, which have caused many New Zealand birds to become 
so peculiar and eccentric that their relationship to the ancestral 
type can hardly be recogni.sed. Mr. Will Law.son, who is now a 
resident of Wellington, has supplied me with some notes on a 
few Australian birds which are not seeu in New Zealand. "I 
read with pleasure your notes concerning the White-eye and its 
migration to New Zealand," he says " and having some years 
ago lived for a time in Queensland, where the little bird is known 
as the 'Silver eye,' its mention revived memories of bird life in 
Australia. Your more recent allusion to the White Heron 
prompts me to offer you these notes on some of the more unusual 
Queensland birds ; unusual, that is, to New Zealanders." 
He says that in Queensland, as in other tropical and sub- 
tropical countries, there are many varieties of birds and many of 
each kind, gaily-coloured and strident-tongued ; F'inches, Parrots, 
Crows, Pigeons and other sorts. Of Pigeons and Doves there 
