of birds would naturally be exterminated. The rats will also eat turnips, cabbages, gooseberries, and peas. It is said that Captain Cook got spinach in Dusky Sound, but I have seen nothing of it in my four years' perambulations, though I know the plant well. Perhaps the rats ate it. They go down on to the mud-flats and carry up cockles, some of which they bite and eat fresh, but most they leave to die and open of their own accord. This "side dish" allows them to hunt up the last seed in the bush, and in this their scent gives them a great advantage over the birds. This alone would account for the abundance of rats and scarcity of the Notornis.

But nearly all grass and vegetable-eaters depend on seeds for rearing their young, and it must be a long time since the Notornis had a fair opportunity of rearing her chickens, especially when strength of beak denotes that she was essentially a seed-eater. Thus we may infer that they would breed like rabbits on the seeds that we could give them, if only we could catch a live pair. It is, alas, a forlorn hope on the coast, but might be possible yet at Te Anau.

ART. XII.-On Tuberculosis in Pheasants in Wanganui. By S. H. DREW, F.L.S.

[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 8th August, 1899.] SOME little time ago several of the acclimatisation societies on this coast joined with the Wellington Society to procure live. game from England. Our local society elected to import the long-tailed Reeves pheasant (Phasianus reevesii). Before the birds arrived I had a large place enclosed at the rear of the Museum, and everything was ready for them when they arrived by the "Ruapehu" some eighteen months ago. The boxes of birds came from the "Ruapehu" by local steamer, and on arrival I at once took them to the Museum and let them out in the place prepared for them. I wish to say here that the boxes the birds were brought out from England in were cruelly small, each bird being in a separate compartment of the following size: 11 in. wide, 18 in. high, and 23 in. deep so small, indeed, were they that the tailfeathers of the birds had to be cut quite close to the body to get them into the box, and I doubt if the birds could have turned round when inside. One bird was dead on arrival, and the wings of two others were broken and hanging down. I washed these and set them as well as I was able. In the

course of time moulting came on; the beautiful new plumage took the place of the old dirty feathers, and the cock-birds looked magnificent in their gorgeous colours and long 4 ft. tails.

All the birds being now fully feathered, and seeming in splendid health, the society decided to liberate them. This was done some distance up the Wanganui River. The pair with the mended wings were not turned out, as it was considered that there was a danger of their being destroyed by dogs, and it was also hoped that the pair would rear a brood of young ones. The hen laid eleven eggs, but would not sit, so the eggs were placed under a domestic hen, who hatched them out, but, unfortunately, trod them to death soon afterwards. During the time of their captivity the birds improved in appearance; they ate well, and looked strong and healthy, and showed no outward indication of disease. On Sunday, the 2nd July, the cock-bird began to mope, and, although still eating food, died on the following Thursday. I opened the bird and found the liver about six times larger than normal, and closely studded with nodules or cysts containing a yellow cheesy matter, and varying in size up to in. in diameter. Dr. Connolly of this town (one of the presidents of our society) examined the bird with me, and pronounced the trouble to be tuberculosis. Nor was the liver only in this state; all the organs were more or less diseased. The lungs appeared to be most healthy; at the same time there was a very large nodule at the bottom of the right lung. The body was not emaciated, but rather well nourished. Being such an interesting specimen, I wrapped it in cloth, wetted with a solution of formol, and posted it to the Chief Veterinarian, Mr. Gilruth, Wellington, who writes, "The disease affecting this animal is tuberculosis in a most advanced stage, almost every organ being implicated. The nodules in the liver and lungs, when examined microscopically, are found to be filled with masses of the characteristic bacillus."

In

Now, where did the bird contract the disease? Was it before it reached New Zealand or afterwards? Many are of the opinion that had the bird developed tuberculosis before coming here it would have died, and not have lived in apparent health for eighteen months after its arrival here. spite of this opinion I think it hardly possible for the birds, while under my care, to have come in contact with the bacillus indicated for many reasons. To start with, the aviary was built on the sandhill at the rear of the Museum; it was not old ground. About four years ago some feet of the sand was stripped off in levelling the site, and the land has been close fenced ever since. No rubbish or anything was thrown there; no animals were kept in the enclosure; grass was growing strongly; nothing could drain into the

land; and it was never wet, as drainage went away at once. The birds were fed with the best corn and other seeds, sopped bread with water, cabbage, and lettuce. The water used for the birds was always rain-water, and no other birds were with them. No meat, liver, or milk was given them as food. They were in a private part of the Museum grounds, and the public could not get to them. The only creatures we ever saw in the avairy were sparrows and rats. Could the rats communicate the disease? I should add that after the birds had been here one month a hen died, and later on I lost a cock-bird, but unfortunately, I am sorry to say, I made no examination of either. I have since heard that other societies who imported the Reeves pheasant lost all by death before turning out.

ART. XIII.-Crossing with the Muscovy Duck.

By COLEMAN PHILLIPS.

[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 11th July, 1899.] THE specimen before members was bred by crossing some pure-bred Muscovy ducks, imported from Sydney about the year 1892, with, I believe, a pure-bred slaty-blue Andalusian drake (if that is the proper name of the breed, being of the same colour as the Andalusian fowls), which are often brought into Wellington from the neighbouring coast ports and sold by the auctioneers about February and March in each year. I only managed to rear one of this cross myself, but a sitting of the eggs I gave to Mr. W. J. Martin, of Huangaroa (in the Wairarapa), about October, 1898. He was lucky enough to hatch out three drakes, one of which is now before the meeting. On the 29th March, 1899, being about four months old, this duck weighed 4 lb. without the skin, &c. It appears so excellent a cross that Sir James Hector has very kindly had the bird stuffed. Great credit is due to Mr. Martin for the admirable manner in which he has reared this drake. The result shows what good feeding and a good cross will do he reared it chiefly upon pollard and soaked wheat. As we are anxious to breed good poultry for the English market this specimen may prove useful as a guide. The weight of the dead bird at so young an age should recommend it to breeders, although it might have been killed one month earlier with advantage, but Mr. Martin thought it better to keep it until the neck-feathers had obtained their proper colouring. I think it would have been in more prime condition and a better weight than at present had it been killed at three months old.

II-BOTANY.

ART. XIV.-Revised List of New Zealand Seaweeds.

Part I.

By ROBERT M. LAING, B.Sc.

[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th October, 1899.] Plates V.-VII.

THE following list is based chiefly upon the work of Professor J. G. Agardh, and to a large extent follows the order of his De Algis Nova-Zealandiæ marinis." No general account of the New Zealand seaweeds has been published since 1864, when Hooker's "Handbook of the New Zealand Flora" was issued. Agardh's annotated list, referred to above, appeared in the Lund Univ. Årskrift, tom. xiv., 1877. It is to be hoped that the following paper will give New Zealand students a clue to the work that has been done since that date, and will also lay the foundations for a knowledge of the distribution of our species within New Zealand. No attempt is made in it to deal with external distribution, or to give an extended synonymy of the species. It will, however, be found that the list increases the proportion of endemic species, largely because earlier algologists somewhat hastily identified similar forms with European species, as, for example, in the genera Porphyra and Ulva.

"New

They also too frequently considered such names as Zealand," "Australia," "East Coast" as sufficiently descriptive of the habitat. This led to the inclusion, particularly in Hooker's Handbook, of a number of Australian species in our list, and still leads to doubts as to the acceptance of other species not recently collected. In this revision, therefore, I have not included any species of Harvey which have not been accepted by Agardh or collected subsequently to the publication of the "Flora Nova-Zealandiæ." On this ground also species endemic to the Auckland or Campbell Islands have been excluded, as no recent collections have been made in these groups. My own collections have been made almost entirely on the eastern and southern coasts of both Islands, and include stations intermediate between Mongonui in the

north and Paterson's Inlet (Stewart Island) in the south. For the benefit of future collectors I may mention the following localities as good collecting-grounds: Half-moon Bay (Stewart Island). South Island-The Bluff, the Nuggets, Akatore (near Tokomairiro), very good; Brighton, Lower Green Island Beach, St. Clair, good; Moeraki, Akaroa, fair; Taylor's Mistake, fair; Double Corner (Amberley), Kaikoura, very good. North Island-Wellington Heads (Lyall's Bay, Island Bay, &c., probably the best collecting-ground in the colony for all forms of shore-life), Castlepoint, Rangitoto Channel, Bay of Islands, very good; Mongonui, fair. There are, no doubt, many other good localities, particularly in the North Island; but a collector visiting any of the above is sure to be well rewarded for his pains.

I have to thank Mr. Crosby Smith, who has collected very carefully in the neighbourhood of Dunedin, for a number of localities for various species, and also for other kind assistance in the preparation of this paper.

REVISED LIST OF NEW ZEALAND SEAWEEDS.

Sub-class CYANOPLYCEE.

Order Nostocaceæ.

1. Tolypothrix irregularis. Fl. Nov.-Zel., p. 265.
On tidal mud, amongst patches of Vaucheria: Colenso.

2. Calothrix scopulorum. Fl. Nov.-Zel., p. 265.

Seashores, on rocks and mud; common: Colenso.

3. Lyngbya, sp., J. Ag., De Alg. N.Z. Mar., p. 1.

On corallines and other Alga, at Auckland and Bay of Islands: Berggren.

4. Rivularia australis, Harv. (Harvey Gibson, Journal of Botany, June, 1893).

Sub-class CHLOROPHYCEE.

Order Caulerpaces.

5. Caulerpa articulata.

East Coast: Colenso.

Fl. Nov.-Zel., p. 261.

6. Caulerpa lætevirens, var., J. Ag. Till Algernes Systematik," J. Ag., p. 34) (Caulerpa sedoides: Fl. Nov.-Zel., p. 261).

Lyall's Bay Lyall; Berggren; R. M. L. Moeraki: R. M. L.

This species has only been imperfectly described, and requires further examination. It is very abundant in the deep tidal pools in the neighbourhood of Island and Lyall's Bays, Wellington.