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SCENE IN NEW ZEALAND, WITH SOME OF ITS REMARKABLE BIRDS.

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small islands; but such localities seem favourable to the Platycercidæ, for another peculiar species is found in the remote Macquarie Islands, more than 400 miles farther south. A peculiar species and genus of ducks, Nesonetta aucklandica, is also found here, and as far as yet known, nowhere else. A species of the northern genus Mergus is also found on these islands, and has been recently obtained by Baron von Hügel.

Plate XIII. Illustrating the peculiar Ornithology of New Zealand.-Our artist has here depicted a group of the most remarkable and characteristic of the New Zealand birds. In the middle foreground is the Owl-parrot or Kakapoe (Stringops habroptilus), a nocturnal burrowing parrot, that feeds on fern-shoots, roots, berries, and occasionally lizards; that climbs but does not fly; and that has an owl-like mottled plumage and facial disc. The wings however are not rudimentary, but fully developed; and it seems to be only the muscles that have become useless for want of exercise. This would imply, that these birds have not long been inhabitants of New Zealand only, but were developed in other countries (perhaps Australia) where their wings were of use to them.

On

Beyond the Kakapoe are a pair of the large rails, Notornis mantelli; heavy birds with short wings quite useless for flight, and with massive feet and bill of a red colour. the right is a pair of Kiwis (Apteryx australis), one of the queerest and most unbird-like of living birds. It has very small and rudimentary wings, entirely concealed by the hair-like plumage, and no tail. It is nocturnal, feeding chiefly on worms, which it extracts from soft earth by means of its long bill. The genus Apteryx forms a distinct family of birds, of which four species are now known, besides some which are extinct. They are allied to the Cassowary and to the gigantic extinct Dinornis. On the wing are a pair of Crook-billed Plovers (Anarhynchus frontalis), remarkable for being the only birds known which have the bill bent sideways. This was at first thought to be a malformation; but it is now proved to be a constant character of the species, as it exists even in the young chicks; yet the purpose served by such an anomalous structure is not yet discovered.

No country on the globe can offer such an extraordinary set of birds as are here depicted.

Reptiles. These consist almost wholly of lizards, there being no land-snakes and only one frog. Twelve species of lizards are known, belonging to three genera, one of which is peculiar, as are all the species. Hinulia, with two species, and Mocoa, with four species (one of which extends to the Chatham Islands), belong to the Scincida; both are very wide-spread genera and occur in Australia. The peculiar genus Naultinus, with six species, belongs to the Geckotidæ, a family spread over the whole world.

The most extraordinary and interesting reptile of New Zealand is, however, the Hatteria punctata, a lizard-like animal living in holes, and found in small islands on the north-east coast, and more rarely on the main land. It is somewhat intermediate in structure between lizards and crocodiles, and also has bird-like characters in the form of its ribs. It constitutes, not only a distinct family, Rhyncocephalidæ, but a separate order of reptiles, RHYNCOCEPHALINA. It is quite isolated from all other members of the class; and is probably a slightly modified representative of an ancient and generalised form, which has been superseded in larger areas by the more specialized lizards and

saurians.

The only representatives of the Ophidia are two sea-snakes of Australian and Polynesian species, and of no geographical interest.

Amphibia. The solitary frog indigenous to New Zealand, belongs to a peculiar genus, Liopelma, and to the family Bomburatoridæ, otherwise confined to Europe and temperate South America.

Fresh-water Fishes.-There are, according to Captain Hutton, 15 species of fresh-water fish in New Zealand, belonging to 7 genera; six species, and one genus (Retropinna), being peculiar. Retropinna richardsoni belongs to the Salmonidæ, and is the only example of that family occurring in the Southern hemisphere, where it is confined to New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. The wide distribution of Galaxias attenuatus-from the

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