fee HOW TO IDENTIFY NEW ZEALAND BIRDS 
in London for instance, but she can attract visitors 
a all parts of the world to see her incomparable 
irds. 
The following facts about birds in general may be 
of interest. 
Birds are to be found throughout the world. The 
first and last thing one sees on leaving or approach- 
ing land are our feathered friends; whilst there 
are very few places where no bird of any kind is 
to be met. Many shipwrecked mariners have owed 
their lives to the oecurrence of birds in otherwise 
uninhabited lands. In places above snow-level where 
animals fail to exist, the ptarmigan find a home. 
Nature so provides that in these snowy regions they 
are clad in white plumage, which changes as the 
Snow disappears. 
In heat, birds are equally at home. One has only 
to think of the Ostrich careering gaily over the sand 
under the African sun, or the ‘‘brainfever bird’’ 
which is always connected with intense heat in the 
minds of residents of India. 
Birds have wonderful eyesight. Vultures congre- 
gating round a meal in the desert are drawn together 
by watching each other from a distance. The bird 
nearest the prey alights, a signal to hasten for the 
vulture, out of sight to the human eye but near 
enough to see all that is going on. He in his turn 
is watched by an even more distant bird, and so 
forth, until the mere fact of a vulture dropping 
earthward is the signal for all the others to follow: 
so that the carcase is covered with screaming ghouls 
almost ere life has departed. 
Hearing in birds is very acute, although except 
with owls and such like birds there is no externally 
visible ear. 
Their sense of smell is usually extremely small. 
Petrels have large nostrils, but hunt their prey by 
sight. Of all birds Kiwis have the most complicated 
nasal passage. In addition, their nostrils are placed 
