lviii 
INTRODUCTION. 
types, and the species themselves are identical, with the exception of Zosterops strenuus and Z. tepliro- 
pleums, both of which, strange to say, are peculiar to this small island. 
To summarize the results, it may be mentioned that out of sixty-nine species of “ land-birds ” 
(excluding the Herons and Bitterns) only eleven have a wider range than New Zealand. Of these 
exceptions five are only accidental stragglers from Australia ; two are annual migrants ; and the 
remaining four are Zosterops ccerulescens, Bailies pliilippensis, Ortygometra tabuensis, and Porphyrio 
melaiionotus. But, what is even more remarkable still, out of thirty-four genera, after making a similar 
elimination to the above, not less than twenty-two are strictly endemic, showing at a glance how 
restricted is the character of the New-Zealand Avifauna. 
That the Ornis of New Zealand may have been, from time to time, affected by casual immigration 
from Australia is probable enough, for, as we have seen, even during recent years, many individual 
cases of the kind have been recorded at irregular intervals ; and it is rather matter for surprise, on 
this ground, that there is not a stronger family likeness, so to speak, between the indigenous birds of 
the two countries at the present day. 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
Before concluding this Introduction it may be well to offer one or two general observations on 
the Families and Genera treated of in the present volume, which closes with the New-Zealand W ood- 
Pigeon ( Carpophaga novae zealandice). 
The number of species described is fifty-five, and these have been referred to twenty-three 
Families and thirty-five Genera. Of the former four, and of the latter seventeen, are strictly endemic 
or peculiar to the New-Zealand Avifauna. 
Of the fifty-five species all but eight are endemic, being found only in New Zealand and 
the adjacent islands. Of the exceptions one is Zosterops ccerulescens, whose erratic history has 
already been noticed, two are migratory birds ( Eudynamis taitensis and Chrysococcyx lucidus), which 
only spend the summer with us, and five are occasional stragglers from the continent of Australia, 
not one of which has ever been known to breed with us. Indeed, in estimating the character of the 
Avifauna it is hardly fair to take count of these accidental visitants — such birds, for example, as 
the Australian Swift, which has been recorded only once in the history of the Colony and may 
never reappear, or the Australian Honey-eater, which has been recorded twice ; so that, adopting 
this view, the number is reduced to one. It will thus be seen at a glance that the so-called 
“land-birds” are, almost without exception, characteristic of the country. Even in the case 
of Zosterops, which I have treated as identical with the Australian bird, there is some ground 
for regarding the New-Zealand form as a distinct local race. The late Mr. Gould and myself 
had no difficulty in picking out two of our birds from a whole case of Australian specimens, so 
manifest was the difference in the tone of coloration. While accepting therefore the identity of the 
species, I would point out that the difference I have mentioned can only be accounted for on the 
supposition that the birds have been separated for a considerable length of time. This tends to 
support my location of the species in the south-west region of the South Island, before it came 
northwards, and is therefore opposed to Professor Hutton’s theory * that it arrived quite recently 
from Australia. 
* ‘New-Zealand Magazine,’ January 1876, p. 96. 
