lvi 
INTRODUCTION. 
One of the most widely distributed species is the Eastern Golden Plover (Charadrius fulvus), 
which, at all times rare in New Zealand, is plentiful in Australia, and spreads itself over the 
Polynesian Islands and the Indian Archipelago, westward to Ceylon, and northward to Siberia and 
Kamtschatka, where it rears its young. 
Several of our Ducks are common to Australia, but it is well known that this Order is a very 
diffuse one in all parts of the world. Our common Grey Duck ( Anas superciliosa), for example, 
extends its range into Tasmania and Australia, over a large portion of Polynesia, and as far north as 
the Sandwich Islands ; whilst the White-winged Duck {Anas gibberifrons ) is met with, not only in 
Australia, but in New Caledonia and the Indian Archipelago. The genus Hymenolcemus , represented 
by our peculiar Mountain Duck, is closely related to an Australian one, and our Shoveller ( Bhynchaspis 
variegata) is a representative species to that inhabiting Australia and Tasmania, the two forms being 
very closely allied. Two other Ducks, however ( Bendrocygna eytoni and Nyroca australis) are so rare 
with us that they may fairly be regarded as Australian stragglers. Even where the species is peculiar 
to New Zealand, the genus to which it belongs may be a widely spread one : for example, Fuligula 
novae zealandice belongs to a genus which has representatives in the northern parts of America, in 
Europe and in Asia, and our splendid Casarca variegata represents a genus which is almost cosmopolitan. 
One of the most puzzling of these occurrences is the Little Bittern ( Ardetta pusilla), which, 
although decidedly rare, has been met with on the west coast and in the southernmost part of the 
South Island. Both this and our common species ( Botaurus pceciloptilus ) are birds of feeble wing; 
yet they are identical with the species inhabiting temperate Australia, showing that they must have 
preserved their individuality as species for a very long period of time. The same remark applies to 
our Porphyrio melanonotus, and, in a lesser degree, to Rallus philippensis and Ortygometra affinis , 
which are very closely related to B. pectoralis and 0. palustris respectively. 
When we come to compare our avifauna with that of the Polynesian “ subregion ” there is still 
less resemblance, for the only genera common to both are the two referred to above, whilst the only 
species mentioned by Mr. Wallace as identical is our other migratory Cuckoo (Eudynamis taitensis). 
It is true that he questions the fact of these Cuckoos being migratory at all, and endeavours to 
account for their disappearance in winter by suggesting that “ in a country which has still such wide 
tracts of unsettled land, they may only move from one part of the islands to another.” But quite 
apart from the lengthened form of the wing in both of these Cuckoos, which at once proclaims them 
“ birds of passage,” the fact of their seasonal arrival in and departure from our country, as fully re- 
corded in my account of each species, is well attested, and forms an essential part of their natural history. 
Besides the genera of occasional or accidental occurrence ( Acanthochoera and Hirundo) and the 
migratory Cuckoo already mentioned, the only groups of land-birds common to New Zealand and 
Polynesia are Platycercus, Carpophaga, and Zosterops, and the widely spread genera Bhipidura , 
Halcyon , and Circus *. 
* It may be worth noting that I have remarked the following similarity between the names employed in the Fijian and 
Maori languages for the same or corresponding birds : — 
Fijian. 
Kawakawasa. 
Lulu. 
Kaka (a kind of Parrot). 
Toa (any fowl-like bird). 
Toro. 
Kula (a red Parrot). 
Maori. 
Kawekawea ( Eudynamis taitensis). 
Euru (an Owl). 
Kaka ( Nestor meridionalis). 
Moa ( Dinornis ). 
Toroa (an Albatros). 
Kaka-kura. 
