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call is indulged in most frequently during moist or wet weather ; it sounds something like ‘ twit, twit, 
twit, twee-twit,’ repeated several times in quick succession. In very stormy gusty weather these 
birds appear dull and silent, secreting themselves among thick tussocks. When flushed, they do 
not rise perpendicularly, but still very straight for a few feet from the ground. In confinement they 
are fond of picking about amongst sand, and thrive well on soaked bread, grain of various kinds, and 
the larvae of insects. The male is not an attentive mate at feeding-time ; and where several are kept 
in the same enclosure, constant little bickerings take place without actual hostilities being indulged 
in. The eggs require twenty-one days’ incubation ; and the chicks are most active directly they 
emerge from the shell. They grow very rapidly ; and at about four months old the young cannot 
very readily be distinguished from adult birds, either by contrast of size or plumage.” 
It may be interesting to mention, as showing the value attaching to extinct or rapidly expiring 
forms, that a skin of this bird (and that, too, a female) sent from the Canterbury Museum to Italy 
fetched as much as £75. My own collection contains an adult male and female (from the North and 
South Islands respectively), a young male of the first year, and another in the “ very young state ” 
described above. The last-named bird was one of a clutch of four, and I am indebted for this, among 
other rare specimens, to my lamented friend Sir Julius von ITaast, the announcement of whose death 
in New Zealand reached me whilst these pages were passing through the press. 
There is a specimen of the egg of this species (probably the only one in Europe) in Professor 
Newton’s fine collection at Cambridge ; and there are five examples in the Canterbury Museum which 
exhibit a slight variation in form and a considerable difference in colour. Two of them (presumably 
from the same nest) are of a regular oval form and of equal size, measuring 1-3 inch in length by 1 
in breadth ; these are of a pale yellowish-brown or buff colour, thickly marked with umber, the dark 
colour often preponderating and having the appearance of daubs or smudges on the outer surface of 
the shell. Two others (also exactly alike) are of a slightly larger size and of a thicker or broader 
form ; these are of a dull cream-colour, sprinkled and minutely dotted all over with blackish brown. 
In one of them the spots are confluent at the larger end, forming a greyish-brown patch nearly half 
an inch in diameter ; and in both the more conspicuous spots have a light or faded centre. The 
fifth egg is smaller and more rounded than any of the rest ; it is of a yellowish-white colour, covered 
all over, but more thickly at the ends, with small smudgy spots of umber ; and it has likewise a more 
glossy appearance than the others. On comparing the eggs of this species with those of Coturnix 
pectoralis, of Australia, there is a manifest difference, those of the latter bird being, as a rule, creamy 
white, with very obscure surface-spots. 
After the above article had been sent to press, I received from the Colony the welcome intelli- 
gence that the last refuge of this well-nigh extinct species had lately been discovered. During the 
recent expedition of the Government steamboat ‘ Stella ’ to the Kermadec Islands, for the purpose 
of annexing them to New Zealand, Captain Fairchild, on his return voyage, landed on the Three 
Kings, a group of small islands situated about 32 miles W.N.W. of Cape Maria Van Diemen, the 
largest of them being only If miles long by f of a mile in width, and rising about 900 feet above 
the sea-level. There is no “ bush ” on this island, but the surface is covered with stunted Leptosper- 
mum, fern, flax, and sedges, with here and there a grassy flat. Notwithstanding the scantiness of the 
vegetation, no less than five plants were discovered entirely new to the New-Zealand flora, and these 
have since been described and named by Mr. Cheeseman, F.L.S., not the least interesting one being 
Pittosporum fairchildi. But, from an ornithologist’s point of view, the most important discovery 
made was the existence there of several bevies of New-Zealand Quail, which were comparatively tame 
and fearless ; and the explorers being fortunately without firearms they were left unharmed. 
It is to be earnestly hoped that prompt steps will be taken by the Government to save and 
perpetuate this last remnant of an expiring race ! 
