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resembles the subject of this notice both in appearance and habits ; and it will be curious to observe 
whether it will succeed in resisting for any length of time those physical conditions which have proved 
so fatal to the indigenous species. 
According to the Maoris, even in the North Island it was formerly very abundant, certain grassy 
plains, like the Murimotu, in the Taupo district, being noted for them. Even at the present day, in 
the investigation of title in the Native Lands Court, the older generation of Maoris, when giving their 
evidence, often refer to the Quail preserves of former times in support of the tribal title *. 
Sir Edward Stafford related to me the following circumstance in illustration of the suddenness 
with which the Quail disappeared from localities where it had once been plentiful: — On one occasion 
about the year 1848, accompanied by two other sportsmen, he went out to his own estate, about 
thirty miles from Nelson, for a days Quail-shooting; and in the course of a few hours the party 
bagged 29§ brace. In the hope of preserving the game, he prohibited any shooting over this ground 
during the following year ; but in the ensuing season, when he naturally looked for some good sport, 
there was not a single Quail to be found ! 
Sir Frederick Weld (the present Governor of the Straits Settlements), about the same period, tried 
a similar experiment on his property at Stonyhurst, but with no better success. Finding the Quails 
very abundant in a particular locality, and being anxious to preserve them, he protected a suitable 
cover of about 2000 acres, never allowing the sheep upon it, nor permitting fires to overrun it. 
When this protection was first extended, there were almost incredible numbers of Quails on the land ; 
but in less than a year they had all disappeared. In 1851 Dr. Shortland found it very numerous on 
the open downs of Waikouaiti ; and as late as 1861, as we learn from Haast’s ‘Journal of Exploration 
in the Nelson Province,’ it was “ still very abundant on the grassy plains of the interior, rising close 
to the feet of the traveller at almost every step.” 
A specimen was shot by Major Mair at Whangarei in 1860 ; Sir James Hector reports the taking 
of a pair at Mangawhai in 1866 ; Captain Mair saw one at Maketu in 1867 ; and the Hon. J. C. 
Richmond met with some in the Taranaki district in the months of November and December 1869. 
These ai’e, I believe, the last recorded instances of its occurrence in the North Island. In the more 
retired portions of the South Island it was occasionally to be found down to 1875 ; but it had before 
that entirely disappeared from the settled country on the eastern side of the Alps. 
In the autumn of 1860 I met with a bevy of nine on a dry grassy ridge in the midst of some 
shallow swamps about two miles from Kaiapoi (in the provincial district of Canterbury) ; and having 
with me a good pointer, I fortunately succeeded in bagging the whole of them. They afforded capital 
shooting, rising quickly and, after a low rapid flight of fifty yards or more in a direct line, dropping 
suddenly into the grass again. The stomachs of those I opened contained green blades of grass and 
a few bi uised seeds, as well as some small fragments of quartz. The bevy consisted of an adult male 
and female, with seven birds of the first year; and as we may infer from the circumstances under 
which they were found that they comprised a single family, we have some evidence that this species 
is not less prolific than the other members of the extensive tribe to which it belongs. 
Mr. Potts, writing of the bird before it had become rare, says: — “They often give utterance to a 
low purring sound that one might suppose to proceed from an insect rather than from a bird. The 
these are in the normal plumage of the cf and 5 ; the other is a remarkable instance of melanism. The entire plumage is a 
brownish slate-colour, paler on the underparts ; on the crown and nape there are obsolete shaft-lines, and the whole of the 
upper surface is obscurely varied and mottled with blackish brown, washed with chestnut-brown on the wings. It is slightly 
smaller than the other specimens and proved on dissection to be a male.” (Trans. JST.-Z. Inst. vol. xiv. p. 534.) 
Extract from Aperahama Te Kume's evidence in the Tokoroa case, at Cambridge, June 1880 : — “ Wahineiti died at 
Tauranga. He said to hgatikea, ‘Don’t take me to Maungatautari but to Tokoroa, that the rushes of my land may grow over 
me, and that my body may drink the dews of Tokoroa.’ This occasioned the name of Horohau : hence, too, the proverb ‘ Nga 
wi o Tokoroa.’ These plains were famous for the abundance of Quail.” 
