SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 
TO THE 
‘BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND.’ 
VOL. I. 
The following additional notes on some of the Families treated of in the present volume may be 
of interest to the general reader. 
Fam. CORVIDS. — The only representative of this family in New Zealand belongs to the 
somewhat aberrant genus Glaucopis. At page 4, in my account of G. wilsoni, I have stated my 
reasons for placing this form at the head of the New-Zealand Avifauna ; and at p. 30 I have given 
the result of Dr. Gadow’s careful examination of a skeleton which I had submitted to him. 
Fam. TTJRNAGEID.® . — At pp. 26-30 I have given what may be considered the final record 
of the North-Island Piopio, a species now on the verge of extinction. Its South-Island representative 
(■ Turnagra crassirostris ) is still to be met with in certain wooded districts, but in rapidly diminishing 
numbers, and, with other interesting forms that still linger, its doom is sealed. 
As recently as December 1887 last one of my New-Zealand correspondents, writing to me from 
the west coast, says : — “ Since I came here I have formed the acquaintance of several old gold-diggers, 
from whom I have gathered much information on the haunts and habits of many of the species. All 
of them agree that certain birds are disappearing fast, viz. the Crow, the Saddle-back, the Thrush, the 
Robin, the Kakapo, the Woodhen, and the Kiwi. Fifteen years ago all these birds existed here in 
abundance. Every digger keeps a gun and a dog, besides, as a rule, having one or more cats in their 
huts. All the birds I have mentioned, either from their tameness, their incapacity for flight, or their 
habit of feeding on the ground, would fall an easy prey to dogs and cats, both of which animals often 
stray away from the diggers’ camp and become wild. Man also contributes to the work of wholesale 
destruction. Last Sunday I dined on stewed Kiwi at the hut of a lonely gold-digger, who, besides the 
three cooked for dinner, had four other fat Kiwis hanging on the wall, to serve through the week. 
My host informed me that he varied his bill of fare with Wekas and Kakapos. These men lead lonely 
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