page 2

Introduction

Our previous knowledge of the blood parasites of New Zealand birds is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1
(An asterisk denotes that the host is non-indigenous.)

Systematic position of host	Common name of host	Parasite	Reference
AVES SPHENISCIFORMES
Spheniscidae
Megadyptes antipodes (Hombron and Jacquinot, 1841)	Yellow-crowned penguin	Plasmodium relictum (Grassi and Feletti, 1891) var. spheniscidae Fantham and Porter, 1944.	Fantham and Porter, 1944
PASSERIFORMES
Turdidae
*Turdus ericetorum (Turton, 1807)	Song thrush	Haemoproteus danilewsky? Plasmodium sp.?	Doré, 1920
*Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 Alaudidae	Blackbird	Haemoproteus danilewsky? Plasmodium sp.?	Doré, 1920
*Alauda arvensis Linnaeus, 1758 Motacillidae	Skylark	Haemoproteus danilewsky? Plasmodium sp.?	Doré, 1921
Anthus novaeseelandiae (Gmelin, 1789)	Pipit	Plasmodium sp.?	Doré, 1920a

A survey of the haemotozoa of New Zealand animals carried out during 1947–48 resulted in the confirmation and amplification of these earlier records, with the exception of those concerning Alauda arvensis and Anthus novaeseelandiae from which no material was examined. In the following pages the results of this survey are discussed and host and parasite records new to this country are given.