through the apices of the basal cells, and a third, which is Y-shaped, through the apex of the discal cell. There are also spots on the hind margin of the wing between these fasciæ, and brown rings at the tips of most of the longitudinal veins. Length, 13 mm., 18 mm.; wing, ♂ 31 mm., 34 mm.; antennæ, ♂, 3 mm.; hind femur, ♂, ? 9 mm.; fore femur, 37 mm., 9 8 mm.

Hab. Wellington (Hudson).

The hind tibia and hind tarsus are each of the same length as the hind femur; but the fore tarsus is longer than the fore femur, and longer even than the hind tarsus. The posterior cross-vein arises at the inner angle of the discal cell, so that the base of the fourth posterior cell is pointed.

Tanyderus forcipatus. Plate IV., fig. 22. Tanyderus forcipatus, Osten-Sacken, Verh. z.-b. Wien, xxix., p. 520 (1879).

Reddish-brown. Head and neck dark-brown. Thorax cinerous, the centre of the mesonctum dark-brown, divided by a pale longitudinal line. Halteres dark-brown. Abdomen brown, with a row of cinerous spots on each side; the anal styles orange. Coxæ, femora, and hind tibiæ reddish-brown; all the joints fuscous. Wings white, with brown markings, the costal cell yellowish, the veins dark-brown. The auxiliary, the first longitudinal, and the anterior branch of the second longitudinal alone have hairs. The markings on the wings are two round spots on the costa, one of which, at the origin of the second longitudinal, is encircled by a broad band which passes through the apices of the basal cells and through the anal cell to the base of the wing; the other is at the apex of the auxiliary vein, and outside it there is a broad oblique fascia through the base of the first submarginal and apex of the discal cells to the tip of the sixth longitudinal, but is interrupted along the posterior intercalary vein. Tips of the wings and a spot at the end of the posterior branch of the fourth longitudinal and one on the posterior margin of the axillary cell brown. Length, 15 mm.; wing, 15 mm.; hind femur, 9 8 mm.; fore femur, 8 mm. Hab. Wellington (Hudson); Otago (F. W. H.).

The legs are more robust than in the last species. Neither of the hind tarsi are perfect in my specimen. The posterior intercalary vein arises from the posterior cross-vein a short distance below its junction with the fourth longitudinal, so that the fourth posterior cell has a flat base.

APPENDIX.

The following new species, from the Auckland Islands, have been described by Professor Josef Mik, of Vienna, in the Verhandlungen der zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, vol. xxxi., pp. 195–206 (1881) :—

Dicranomyia insularis.

3. Cinereo-fusca, abdomine fasciis apicalibus transversis obscurioribus, segmentorum incisuris ipsis pallidioribus; alis infumatis, stigmate fusco, venis longitudinalibus conspicue pilosis; apice venæ auxiliaris basi venæ longitudinalis secundæ opposito; venula transversa inter venam auxiliarem et longitudinalem primam inconspicua, ab apice venæ auxiliaris satis remota. Forcipis maris articulis terminalibus permagnis, in latere interiore in rostrum corneum bisetosum productis. Long. corp. 6 mm., long. alar. 8 mm.

Dicranomyia kronei.

3. Tota fusca, femoribus ad basin et forcipe dilutioribus; alis infuscatis, immaculatis, stigmate pallido, costa intra venam auxiliarem et tertiam longitudinalem valde incrassata; vena auxiliari ultra basim venæ longitudinalis secundæ excurrente; venula transversa inter auxiliarem et longitudinalem venam primam obsoleta, ab apice venæ auxiliaris parum remota et origini venæ longitudinalis secundæ opposita; venula transversa cellulam discoidalem a cellula basali anteriori separante subrecta. Long. corp. 6 mm., long. alar., 8 mm.

Trichocera antipodum.

, . Cinereo-fuscana, genitalibus pedibusque dilutioribus; alis pallide infuscatis, immaculatis, vena transversa ordinaria cellulæ discoidalis subtrigonæ basim attingente; ramis furcæ, cellulam discoidalem egredientis, multo longioribus quam illius furcæ pedicellus; seginento venæ longitudinalis quintæ ultimo triplo longiore quam vena transversa posterior. Feminæ ovipositore naviculiforme. Long. corp. 4 mm., long. alar. 5 mm.

Limnophila bryobia.

3. Nigra, halteribus testaceis, clava ad apicem nigra; alis latis, infumatis, stigmate dilute nigro-fusco, cellulis posterioribus quatuor. Long. corp. 9 mm., long. alar. 10 mm., latitudo alarum, 3.3 mm. (ab venæ auxiliaris apice usque ad apicem venæ longitudinalis sextæ).

EXPLANATION OF PLATES III. AND IV.

PLATE III.

Fig. 1. Dolichopeza atropos, wing.

Fig. 2. Pachyrhina hudsoni, a, wing; b, antenna; c, male forceps from above; d, male forceps from below.

Fig. 3. Tipula fulva, wing.

Fig. 4. Tipula viridis, a, wing; b, antenna.
Fig. 5. Tipula obscuripennis,

Fig. 6. Tipula dux, wing.

wing.

Fig. 7. Macromastix binotata, wing.

Fig. 8. Dicranomyia monilicornis, wing.

Fig. 9. Geranomyia annulipes, a, wing; b, rostrum.
Fig. 10. Trochobola ampla, wing.

Fig. 11. Trochobola picta, wing.

PLATE IV.

Fig. 12. Rhamphidia levis, a, wing; b, antenna.

Fig. 13. Gnophomyia rufa, wing.

Fig. 14. Limnophila sinistra, wing.

Fig. 15. Limnophila crassipes, wing.

Fig. 16. Limnophila marshalli, wing.

Fig. 17. Tinemyia margaritifera, a, wing; b, tip of rostrum.
Fig. 18. Gynoplistia cuprea, wing.

Fig. 19. Gynoplistia fulgens, wing.

Fig. 20. Cerozodia plumosa, wing.

Fig. 21. Tanyderus annuliferus, a, head and thorax; b, head, side view; c, antenna; d, anal styles of female; e, forceps of male.

Fig. 22. Tanyderus forcipatus, wing.

ART. X.-On Hereditary Knowledge.

By RICHARD HENRY.

Communicated by Sir James Hector.

[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 11th July, 1899.] I REMEMBER reading about the young swallows taking their flight from England when they had been only a few days on the wing; and, when we know nothing to the contrary, we are likely to assume that their parents led them away and taught them the geography of the country they were going to. But I have seen young shining cuckoos at Te Anau as late as April, apparently alone and quite happy, though they had a thousand-mile flight before them immediately, if they wished to survive; and no one to show them the way, for it is probable that a young cuckoo never sees its mother except by accident.

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As far as our knowledge goes, the cuckoos leave their eggs and young entirely to foster-parents, who are not likely to teach

any cuckoo lore. Therefore the knowledge of geography and their own peculiar impressions must have been laid in the egg, or, in other words, must have been hereditary; and why not the same with the swallows?

If the parent swallow has to lead her young and point out routes and localities, it is a very poor plan compared with that of the cuckoos; because, if anything happened to the parents, or if they were getting old or weakly, their young would perish with them for want of the knowledge that could as well have been laid in the egg.

Every one knows that a trout will teach nothing to its young ones, but will eat them at the first opportunity; yet they know all about visible fishing-lines, and the way to ascend rivers and rapids at the appointed time, which must be hereditary, when they had no experience and no teachers.

The young snipes, flying away to some far-off country, may have all the geographical knowledge that their parents had gathered for ages as to where and when to find the marshes and springs that shelter their food in a land that they had never seen, and probably never heard of. Therefore the long flights of migratory birds may be directed by knowledge derived from far-distant parents that first made their journeys when land was almost continuous.

What a wonderful thing is mind, of which we seem only to have a part, deficient in valuable faculties that other animals possess-deficient in memory and thought, and in the power of transmitting or even retaining the hard-earned acquirements that our youngsters need so much.

However, I saw recently in Dunedin what I take to be a case of hereditary aptitude in a little boy, who was better read and more intelligent at nine years of age than many boys at sixteen. And when we remember our progress in the last generation there appear great possibilities in the next few thousand years, which will skip away like hours when our time is up. Then, if any of us are allowed to look back at this old world, we may see hereditary knowledge becoming a part of men's minds, and ignorance and imposture things of the past. The power of heredity to improve we readily admit among animals, but ignore in ourselves, not because its laws are so obscure, but because our whims are easier to follow; and, though we experiment in all other branches of science, this, the most important of all, we have hardly the courage to touch.

ART. XI. On the Probable Origin of Notornis mantelli, and its Extinction in New Zealand.

By RICHARD HENRY.

Communicated by Sir James Hector.

[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 11th July, 1899.] MANY readers will remember that the swamp-hen was mentioned in Cook's voyages at various places in the Pacific, and every one knows that our bird is common in Australia under a variety of names, of which swamp-hen is about the best, because it is simple and accurately descriptive. Thus we may assume that it is migratory, and in the case of the Notornis (which is also a rail) may have a history parallel to that of the wood-hen. Coming here long ago in search of the New Zealand swamps-of which it may have had a hereditary geographical knowledge-and becoming tired or storm-bound, it dropped down in the West Coast bush, where seeds were abundant before the advent of rats, and where there were no enemies on the ground. The sparrow-hawk was probably their worst enemy in New Zealand, because the swamp-hen cannot turn and twist on the wing, but flies straight, and offers a splendid mark for the swooping hawk. I have seen them knock down several swamp-hens, and, ferret-like, sometimes only drink their blood. If those hawks were plentiful it must have been a great inducement for the old swamp-hens to stay in the scrub, until at last they were too lazy to fly, especially those that had escaped a knock or two from the hawks. Then, with mates of like experience, there is no mystery about the founding of this notable family--a branch of which exists in the white swamp-hen of Norfolk Island.

A curious item was told me this morning by Mr. Nixon, of H.M. Customs. About twenty years ago the "Gleaner (Captain Agnew) came into Greymouth with a strange bird aboard, which turned out to be a New Zealand or Australian swamp-hen, that came to the vessel for a rest four hundred miles from the New Zealand coast, and was captured by the crew. There is no doubt about this fact; notwithstanding our habit of thinking that swamp-hens are poor fliers; and there need be as little mystery about the disappearance of the Notornis when we come to know the facts. The rats at my homestead will never allow a single grain of oats to ripen, but eat it all in the soft stage, and they take about 70 per cent. of the grass-seed. The native thrush and the kakapo can shell oats nearly as well as a sparrow, though I know of no such grain in the bush. This gives us a hint of what kind