Art. XXL—On the Disappearance of the Korimako (Anthornis melanura) from the North Island. By Walter L. Buller, C.M.G., Sc.D.

[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd September, 1877.]

In my "History of the Birds of New Zealand," in treating of this bird I made the following statement, which was afterwards challenged by Captain Hutton, in a communication to "The Ibis:"—

"This species, formerly very plentiful in every part of the country, appears to be rapidly dying out. From some districts, where a few years ago it was the commonest bird, it has now entirely vanished. In the Waikato it is comparatively scarce; on the East Coast it is only rarely met with; and from the woods north of Auckland it has disappeared altogether. In my journeys through the Kaipara district eighteen years ago, I found this bird excessively abundant everywhere; and on the banks of the Wairoa the bush fairly swarmed with them. Dr. Hector, who passed over the same ground in 1866, assures me that he scarcely ever met with it; and a valued correspondent, writing from Whangarei (about eighty miles north of Auckland), says:—'In 1859 this bird was very abundant, in 1860 it was less numerous, in 1862 it was extremely rare, and from 1863 to 1866 I never saw but one individual. It now seems to be entirely extinct in this district.'"

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Captain Hutton, in the communication referred to, ^* suggested that the districts in which the bird was all but exterminated were only those thickly inhabited by Maoris, to which the obvious reply was that the extensive wooded district lying between Whangarei and the North Cape is not inhabited by Maoris at all. Dr. Hector, who made a geological survey of that district in 1868, did not meet with a single korimako, whereas formerly these birds existed there by thousands. My remarks on the present scarcity of the species were intended to refer principally to the North Island, but even in the South, as I have already pointed out ("Trans. N.Z. Inst.," vol. IX., p. 330), it is far less plentiful than it formerly was. Doubtless it is only a question of a few years, and the sweet notes of this native songster will cease to be heard in the grove, and naturalists, when compelled to admit the fact, will be left to speculate and argue as to the causes of its extinction.

My observations as to the extreme rarity of this species in the North Island, where in former years it was the commonest of the perehers, are confirmed by Captain Mair, who informs me that during the last eight years he has never met with it at all, except on the Island of Mokoia (a place of some historic interest in the Rotorua Lake, about 600 acres in extent), and in a tract of manuka bush covering about a thousand acres of land at the foot of Mount Edgecumbe. In both of these localities it is still very plentiful.

In 1868, Captain Hutton found the korimako abundant on Great Barrier Island, although even then scarce on the main-land;^† and in 1871 Major Mair met with it on the Rurima Rocks and on "Whale Island, in the Bay of Plenty, places about five miles apart. He records the delight with which he again listened to its sweet note, and adds, "the Maoris think that it is the sole survivor of the race, and that it flies backwards and forwards between these islands."^‡

Although I have travelled a good deal through the forests of the interior since my return from Europe in 1874, I have positively never met with a single example of this bird on the main-land; but during a storm-bound visit to the island of Kapiti, in April last, I was charmed immediately on landing to hear the musical notes of the bell-bird again, and to meet with it in every direction among the stunted karaka groves that clothe the western slopes of the island. In the course of an afternoon I saw a score or more of them within a very limited area, and on a second and more extended visit on the following day I found them equally numerous. I met with another bird page 221 also, which has likewise become well-nigh extinct on the main-land (Miro lonyipes), although not in such numbers as the former.

The facts I have mentioned are interesting as furnishing another illustration of the observed natural law, that expiring races of animals and plants linger longest and find their last refuge on sea-girt islands of limited extent.