70 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
ecard 
NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF FIJI AND OTHER 
ISLANDS. 
(By Launcelot Harrison.) 
Ar the March meeting of the New South Wales Naturalists’ 
Club Mr. E. J. Goddard outlined a collecting trip in Fiji, 
which had for its purpose the gathering of material to aid in 
proving the continental origin of this group of islands. Mr. 
Goddard’s remarks on his results showed us that a fairly close 
relationship existed between the Fijian fauna and that of 
‘Australia; but as he made no mention of the avifauna, a few 
words on the bird relationships may prove interesting. 
Of the six families of birds confined to the Australian region, 
two are represented in Fiji—the honey-eaters (Meliphagide) 
and the cuckoo-shrikes (Campophagide). The former family 
is typically Australian—only one species, Péilotis limbata, 
crosses Wallace’s Line—and it is interesting to find in Fiji 
members of two very common Australian genera, Pzlotis and 
Myzomela, of which we have representatives about Sydney, as 
well as some silver-eyes (Zosterops), dubious members of the 
honey-eater family. Coming further south, it is more interest- 
ing still to find two large and distinct silver-eyes upon Norfolk 
Island, and three highly-specialised honey-eaters, the parson- 
bird, bell-bird, and recently-extinct stitch-bird, in New 
Zealand. 
In the second family, a lalage is found in Fiji, very like the 
familiar ‘“ peewee-lark” (J. tricolor) of the Sydney small boy, 
while a close relation also appears in the Norfolk Island 
“sparrow ” (Symmorphus), but no member of the family is 
found in New Zealand. The suggested connection of Fiji with 
Norfolk Island is, however, a point I would wish to emphasise, 
as the connection of the latter island with New Zealand te the 
south, and with New Caledonia and New Guinea to the north 
can be fairly well established on other evidence. ‘I'wo other 
Fijian birds showing a close relation to Australia are a wood- 
swallow (Artamus) and a leaden fly-catcher (Myiagra), while 
the wandering kingfisher is common to New Zealand, Norfolk 
Island and Fiji, and is closely allied to the sacred kingfisher of 
Australia. The most important remaining birds are parrots 
and fruit-pigeons of good Australian lineage. It will thus be: 
seen that the avifauna of Fiji, like that of all the islands to 
the north and north-west, is typically Australian. 
Coming south, however, the enquirer is faced by a number 
of isolated species and groups, which complicate the question 
of distribution considerably. In New Caledonia the first 
stumbling-block is met with in the kagu, which many of our 
members will remember to have seen on the occasion of our 
visit to Mr. Finckh’s aquarium. This bittern-like bird is really 
a specialised rail, and its only relative in a world of birds is 
the sun-bittern of the north of South America. The problem 
