32 
it has disappeared altogether. This resalt is attributable, in a great measure, to the ravages of eats 
and dogs, to which this species, from its ground-feeding habits,, falls an easy prey. 
Sir James Hector informs me that, during his exploration of the West Coast in the yea s 
1862-63, he found it very abundant, and on one occasion counted no ess tian oit; in ennrrie me 
vicinity of his camp. They were very tame, sometimes hopping up to the very door of his ten to 
pick up crumbs ; and he noticed that the camp-dogs were making sad havoc among them. He is of 
opinion that in a few years this species also will be numbered among the extinct ones. 
Mr. Buchanan, of the Geological Survey, assures me that in the woods m the neighbourhood of 
, . ’ , If Tints hppn Quite exterminated by the wild cats. It 
Dunedin, where it was formerly very common, it ^ . but iu . fed „ r ill. use<i members 
may be here observed that there is no indigene , J ■ themselves 
of the race, in the struggle for existence, frequentl quit he seller s^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 
to the woods, where they, in course of time, produ e c I y . 
owing the almost entire extermination of the Quail and on^Stephens Island on the south 
It is worthy of remark that Mr. Burton obtained a specimen on Stepne 
side of Cook s Strait. aware, from those of its congener in 
The habits of this bird differ m no respect, so far as I am aware , 
the North Island. The following incident is illustrative of its 
Mr. Fletcher Buller, while residing in Canterbury, obtained a live one 
in a cage with a pair of tame Parrakeets On the morning ; he 
found, to his dismay, that the newly introduced bird had slain both of his fellow prisoners, and 
a" " rS" Museum, obtained from the Elver Waio, County 
of Westland. It is a round nest, somewhat loosely constructed, composed ^es Id 
: firmly, fixed in the forked twigs of a 
small upright branch In the same collection there is another nest from Lake Mapounka, which is 
formed of toft green moss on a tapering foundation of small twigs, completely fil ing the crutch of a 
manuka fork afd being fully a foot in depth. Another, formed externally of dry twigs, is of mo 
irregular shape, but is likewise built in a forked branch as a means of support. The circular cup 
neatly lined with dry bents. Mr. Potts, who studied this bird pretty closely in W estland, states that 
the nest is generally found among the thick foliage of the tutu (Ccriana rmafoha , but sometimes 
in karamu or manuka, that it is sometimes finished off with soft tree-fern down as a lining, and that 
u , • .f rminiou that the bird breeds twice m the season. I be 
it usually contains two eggs ; and ' ’J Zhe egg which exhibit considerable difference in form. 
Museum collection contains four specimens o -i.q i^pi. p v 
Two of them — probably from one nest-are very ovoido-comcal ; one o: f «he ; ~s ! 3 mmb y 
1-05 inch, and is pure white, marked at irregular distances over the entire ^^,7 s not so pure 
roundish spots of blackish brown. The other is slightly narrower ” fo ™> *** ^ Ul „J en l 
and the markings are less diffuse, being collected ^ ie ™ j ^'^oido-eniptical form, and of equal 
The other two eggs (apparently also from one nest) aie ot a long ovomo emj ’ * 
size; the one I ested measuring W inch in length by -95 of an inch in its widest part. The shell 
L pure white, with widely-sea.tered irregular spots of blackish brown, loss numerous and of smaller 
size in one than in the other. Both eggs have a rather glossy surface. 
