INTRODUCTION. 
lv 
annual migrant to and from Australia : thus leaving only Zoster ops cceridescens to be accounted for, 
and this species has been sufficiently treated of already. 
Mr. Wallace’s strongest point is the Family Meliphagidse, which is a very typical and well- 
distributed Australian group. But accepting, as I think we must do, his theory of the introduction 
of the ancestral types into New Zealand by way of tropical Australia and New Guinea, it is easy to 
account for the presence of this peculiar form in both countries, inasmuch as the Meliphagidse have 
representatives as far north as the Sandwich Islands, whilst other members of the group are spread 
through the Austro-Malayan subregion, finding their extreme western limit in the Celebes. 
Supposing that the ancient type reached New Zealand by the north-western route, it then resolves 
itself into a mere question of time and “ descent with modification.” 
Dr. Otto Finsch, who has written several interesting papers on New-Zealand Ornithology, 
appears to me to exaggerate very much the importance of this feature, for he accepts it as a proof of 
“ far more intimate connection with Australia than one would suppose from the geographical position 
of the two countries.” He is unable, however, to account for the absence of true Trichoglossi in New 
Zealand, seeing that this group is so strongly developed in the temperate parts of Australia. 
It is a point of some significance that the Meliphagine genera in New Zealand are not very 
closely related to those of Australia, except in the case of Pogonornis, which approximates somewhat 
to Ptilotis, a decidedly subtropical genus. Apart from the true Honey-eaters, the only genera that 
Mr. Wallace specially refers to as related to peculiar Australian ones are Miro and Myiomoira (allied to 
Petroeca), Ocydromus (allied to Eulabeornis ), and Eymenolcemus (allied to Malacorhynchus). It seems 
to me, therefore, that he has not succeeded in establishing a co-ordinate relation between the avi- 
fauna; of these so-called subregions of Australia. 
It is worthy of remark also that, with the exception of the highly developed Meliphagidse, com- 
prising four very distinct genera (and numbering altogether only five species), none of the New- 
Zealand families contain more than two genera, presenting a marked difference in this respect to the 
numerous subordinate groups among the birds of Australia. 
Seeing that the Shining Cuckoo ( Chrysococcyx lucidus ) is met with in New Guinea, and probably 
further west, that it is likewise found in tropical Australia, and that it comes to us from the north, 
or north-west — for it always makes its appearance first at the extreme north — it is easy to understand 
that the migratory impulse has been inherited from time immemorial, and the more so as the closely- 
allied species ( C . plagosus) is also a summer visitant to the temperate and southern portions of 
Australia. But it is very difficult to imagine why the Long-tailed Cuckoo ( Eudynamis taitensis), 
which hibernates in the warm islands of the Pacific — the Friendly, Society, Marquesas, Fiji, and 
Samoa groups — ranging over more than 40° of longitude, should make its annual pilgrimage across 
1500 miles of ocean to New Zealand *. 
The Waders are, for the most part, cosmopolitan, and are therefore of little account when esti- 
mating the geographical relations of the avifauna. 
* Mr. Wallace says, in his account of the Chatham Islands (‘ Island Life,’ p. 454): — “ It is. stated that the Zosterops differs 
from that of New Zealand, and is also a migrant ; and it is therefore believed to come every year from Australia, passing over 
New Zealand, a distance of nearly 1/00 miles ! But this is evidently a lapsus calami, the bird intended being the Chrysococcyx. 
Prof. Hutton stated (Trans. N.-Z. Instit. vol. v. p. 225) that this happened in the case of C. plaijosus ; but T have shown 
elsewhere that he was wrong in his identification of the species, the Shining Cuckoo ( C . lucidus) which annually visits the 
Chatham Islands being identical with the New-Zealand bird. Chrysococcyx playosus, distinguished by its narrower bill, has never 
been met with in New Zealand, and it would be strange indeed if this Australian species had occurred in the Chatham Islands to 
the eastward. 
