1920.] 
Natural-history Notes. 
55 
Cominella quoyi Kiener, by Charles Hedley, Australian Museum. 
Discussing this entry in his Manual (p. 389), Mr. Suter remarked that 
he had never seen a shell from New Zealand which would correspond to 
the figure of Kiener. 
I now suggest that Kiener’s Buccinum quoyi was based on an immature 
individual of a smooth form of the common tropical Pollia undosa Linne. 
If so, there is no possibility that it should be a member of the fauna of New 
Zealand. 
On the Occurrence of the Australian Coot in New Zealand, by Alfred 
Philpott. 
On the 18th July last a specimen of the Australian coot ( Fulica atra 
tasmanica Gould) was brought to the Southland Museum by Mr. A. Ball, 
of Invercargill, the bird having been shot at Mataura Island a few days 
previously by Mr. George Dickson. 
The bird was skinned by Mr. Robert Gibb, from whom I learn that 
it was an old male, in very fat condition. 
Reference to all literature available, and inquiry of the curators of the 
museums of the Dominion (to whom I desire to express my thanks), has 
shown that so far as is known this is the third occurrence of the species 
in New Zealand. 
The first example was taken in 1889, and is referred to by Sir Walter 
Buller in his Supplement to the Birds of ]\ ! eiv Zealand , vol. 1, page 75 : “I 
have to add to the list of New Zealand birds the Australian coot, a specimen 
of which was killed in July, 1889, at Lake Waihora, in the Provincial District 
of Otago, and the bird sent, in the flesh, by Mr. R. Ramage, to the Dunedin 
Museum. There is no record of this species being brought alive from 
Australia, and, even if it had been, it is difficult to see how it could have 
reached that remote district. It is the only New-Zealand-killed specimen 
at present known ; but the habits of the bird are recluse, and it is not 
improbable that many more exist in the swamps and sedges of the interior. 
This particular bird (which is carefully preserved in the Museum) proved 
to be a female.’ ! 
After the lapse of nearly thirty years a second specimen was shot at 
Kaitangata-. From Professor Benham, Curator of the Otago Museum, I 
learn that this bird was a male, and that it was killed by Mr. Alfred Mathews 
in May, 1919. 
The Australian coot is a subspecies of the European bird. It is dis¬ 
tributed throughout Australia and Tasmania, where it is found chiefly 
about lakes, lagoons, and sluggish streams, occasionally appearing at suit¬ 
able coastal localities, such as estuaries. Its food consists of aquatic insects 
and molluscs, and probably also of some vegetable matter. 
It will be noted that Sir Walter Buller inclined to the opinion that the 
bird may be indigenous, pointing out that as the species is of retiring habits 
it may exist in the swamps of the interior. There is, of course, a possibility 
that this may be so, but it seems more likely that the few specimens met 
with are stragglers from Australia or Tasmania. Owing to its shy habits 
and reluctance to take wing, the coot would not be a familiar bird to 
the ordinary observer; but it is hardly likely that it would remain 
unknown to the Maoris, and we have no evidence that they were acquainted 
with it. • 
