March 29, 1932. . 
caught by Maoris on Secretary Island, 
ahompson Sound. Both these skins, that 
if’ -X , an d second are in the 
British Museum. 
/* j i i gave me an account 
ot the discovery of the fourth Notornis 
by him and his brother John. They 
were camping on the shore of Lake Te 
Anau, south of Shag Burn, 34 years ago. 
ihe JNotorms was in their minds. They 
knew that £110 had been paid for one, 
and the form and plumage of the species 
were fixed in their mind by coloured 
dra^ mgs. Lying in their bunks one 
feunda.v morning, they heard a strange 
bird note. As they were tired they did 
not get up and look for the bird, but 
they discussed it and made up their minds 
that it was a Notornis. 
Soon before dark on the same day Mr 
Donald Ross went for a walk along the 
beach, accompanied by his dog, Rough. 
About 150 yards behind the camp Rouoffi 
made a determined rush and caught a 
bud under the overhanging branches of 
a beech tree. Believing that Rough had 
found a weka, Mr Ross called it to brim* 
its eapcive to him. Rough obeyed, and 
Mr Ross knew that another Notornis had 
been added to the short list. The bird 
v as am e When the brothers were con¬ 
sidering how they could make a cage 
out of a box, the head of the Notornis 
dropped to one side, and it died. It 
had lived to r about half an hour after 
it v as captured. Its eyes had been bright 
and intelligent, it had held its head 
proudly, and death seemed to come very 
suddenly. 
• t ^ brothers knew that even in death 
the JSotornis Was valuable. After tea, 
they struck camp, put everything into the 
boat, began to run down the lake, and 
soon left behind the scene of their dis¬ 
covery now known as Notornis Bay. 
they took the body to the post office, 
and sent it to Dr Young in Invercargill, 
Returning to their work in Notornis Bay, 
they stayed there for three weeks. When 
they went to the lake post office again, 
they found that the scientific world was 
excited by their discovery. Mr Jennings, 
taxidermist in Otago Museum, skinned 
and mounted the specimen. The only in¬ 
jury disclosed was a broken breast bone, 
bhock resulting from the injury probably 
caused death. Mr Ross told me that 
while his brothe r and he wished their 
Aotorms to remain in New Zealand, they 
believed that they could have got £1000 
tor it elsewhere, and that they felt that 
they, two working men, had made a pres¬ 
ent of £750 to Otago Museum. 
