87 
and from the woods north of Auckland it has disappeared altogether. In my journeys through the 
Kaipara district, eighteen years ago, I found this bird excessively abundant everywhere ; and on the 
banks of the Wairoa the bush fairly swarmed with them. Dr. Hector, who passed over the same 
ground in 1866, assures me that he scarcely ever met with it ; and a valued correspondent, writing 
from Whangarei (about 80 miles north of Auckland), says: — “In 1859 this bird was very abundant 
here, in 1860 it was less numerous, in 1862 it was extremely rare, and from 1863 to 1866 I never saw 
but one individual. It now seems to he entirely extinct in this district.” 
The above remarks were intended to refer principally to the North Island ; hut even in the 
South, as I have elsewhere pointed out *, it is far less plentiful than it formerly was. Doubtless it 
is only a question of a few years, and the sweet notes of this native songster will cease to be heard 
in the grove ; and naturalists, when compelled to admit the fact, will be left to speculate and argue 
as to the causes of its extinction. 
My observations as to the extreme rarity of this species in the North Island, where in former 
years it was the commonest of the perchers, are confirmed by Captain G. Mair, who informs me that 
during the last ten years he has never met with it at all, except on the Island of Mokoia (a place of 
some historic interest in the Rotorua Lake, about 600 acres in extent), in a tract of manuka bush 
covering about a thousand acres of land at the foot of Mount Edgecumbe, and in the high scrub at 
Waitahanui about ten miles from Taupo. In the first named of these localities it is still very 
plentiful f . 
In 1868, Professor Hutton found the Korimako abundant on Great Barrier Island, although 
even then scarce on the mainland $ ; and in 1871 Major Mair met with it on the Rurima Rocks and 
on Whale Island, in the Bay of Plenty, places about five miles apart. He records the delight with 
which he again listened to its sweet note, and adds, “ the Maoris think there is only one, that it is the 
sole survivor of the race, and that it flies backwards and forwards between these islands.” 
Although I travelled a good deal through the forests of the interior during the ten years after 
my return from Europe in 1874, on one occasion only did I ever meet with this species on the main- 
land, and then only with a solitary bird ; but during a storm-bound visit to the island of Kapiti 
(Cook’s Strait) in April 1877, I was charmed immediately on landing to hear the musical notes of 
the Bell-bird again, and to meet with it in every direction among the stunted karaka groves that 
clothe the western slopes of that island. In the course of an afternoon I saw a score or more of 
them within a very limited area, and on a second and more extended visit on the following day I 
found them equally numerous. I met with another bird also, which has likewise become well-nigh 
extinct on the mainland ( Miro australis), although not in such numbers as the former. 
Several years later I met with the Korimako again, in sufficient abundance, on a wooded islet 
called Motu-taiko in the very centre of the Taupo Lake, having put in there for shelter. 
The facts I have mentioned are interesting, as furnishing another illustration of the observed 
natural law, that expiring races of animals and plants linger longest and find their last refuge on sea- 
girt islands of limited extent. 
* Trans. New-Zealand Instit. vol. ix. p. 330. 
t Captain Mair informs me also that on the small island of Motiti, in the Bay of Plenty, the Bell-bird is very numerous, 
although it is never seen or heard on the mainland opposite. He adds : — “ On Whale Island also, although there are no Tuis, 
"Korimakos are very plentiful. It was really delightful to see and hear them again. They abound in numbers in the shrubbery, 
and hearing them sing at daylight carried me back in spirit to my boyhood, at the North, thirty years ago !” My son having 
gone to this island, to indulge in deep-sea fishing, had to camp there for the night. Ho and his party found shelter in a little 
rocky cavern, and being tho last day of the old year, the new year’s morn was ushered in by a delightful chorus from the 
Bell-birds in the pohutukawa trees above them. 
$ Ten years later, Eeischek could not find one on the Great Barrier, although the bird was still to be heard and seen on the 
Little Barrier. 
