216 
Since that time the question has received much attention at the hands of local ornithologists , 
and although there may be still some difference of opinion as to the propriety of keeping the birds 
distinct, nearly all the subsequent evidence is in support of my contention. 
Apart from the manifest difference in size already mentioned, the Quail-Hawk may be distinguished 
from the smaller species by the colour of the irides, which become yellow in the fully adult bird, 
whereas in llavpct, ferox they are dark brown. 
This larger form is seldom if ever met with in the North Island, where the other is comparatively 
plentiful. The only specimen ever obtained by me there was shot in the Kaipara district, more than 
five-and-twenty years ago, and this is preserved in my old type-collection m the Colonial Museum. It 
is met with in suitable localities all over the South Island. 
Its food consists of birds, rats, mice, lizards, and the larger kinds of insects. It often takes its 
prey on the wing, swooping down on its terrified quarry with the rapidity of an arrow. It never 
feeds on carrion or offal. 
I have been informed by a credible eye-witness that on one occasion a Quail-Hawk swooped 
down upon a man who was carrying a dead Pigeon, and, striking the bird foicibly out of his hands, 
retired to its station in a puriri tree to wait the course of events. It unfortunately fell a victim to its 
intrepidity, as it was instantly shot. 
The late Sir J. von Haast, who always believed in the existence of two species, stated that then- 
habits differ in the manner of taking their prey ; and his collector, the late Mr. Fuller, assured me 
that he had invariably found the large birds paired together in the plains, and the small ones in 
the bush. 
Mr. Eeischek, who has been collecting for eight years in every part of the country, declares that 
all the examples obtained by him in the North Island were undoubtedly referable to the smaller 
form He has collected both species in the South Island, where he invariably found the Quail-Hawk 
on the plains and lower ranges of hills, and the Bush-Hawk near the summits of the wooded ranges. 
Even on the Hen Island (in the Hauraki Gulf) he found the latter species frequenting only the tops 
of the hills. Having studied the birds in their native haunts and shot and compared scores of 
specimens in every condition of plumage, he unhesitatingly affirms that the two forms are specifically 
distinct. 
Mr. Smith, whose full notes on the subject were communicated by me to the Wellington Philo- 
sophical Society *, writes that having procured upwards of thirty specimens and worked out the 
subject for himself he is “ decidedly in favour of the existence of two species.” He states that he 
had nestlings of both, and that those of H. ferox never attained to the size of 11. novce zealandias, 
although he kept them four months longer. In disposition, too, they differed, being fiercer and more 
untamable than the larger form. 
Mr. Potts, who also recognizes two species, makes the following pertinent remarks : 
“ If the cabinet ornithologist will not permit the fauna to possess two species, Falco ferox = 
F. brunnea must be the young state of Falco novce zealandice. In this case we must try to believe 
that the greatest boldness and audacity in attacking, the greatest activity and swiftness of wing in 
pursuing, is exhibited by the Quail-Hawk before it has reached the adult state ; neither may we have 
regard to the difference of size which specimens of either sex very often present 
« In November 1868 two sets of young Falcons were found on Lake Coleridge by Mr. Oakden’s 
shepherd ; they were taken from the nesting-place and presented by Mr. Oakden to the Canterbury 
Acclimatization Society. He stated to the writer that the birds from one nest were readily distin- 
guishable from those of the other nest even from the first. In size there was a marked difference, 
* Trans. N.-Z. Instit. vol. xvi. pp. 318-322. 
