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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7758, 2 October 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

An artiole in the Lyttelton Times on the Notornis, states: —"Only three known specimens have been captured. The first of Mr. Mantell's specimens was caught by a party of Maori sealers at Duok Cove, on Resolution Island, Dusky Sound, and the second on Secretary Island, opposite to Dea'a Gore, Thompson's Hound. Since then a third has been captured by a party of rabbit hunters with dogs, at a place called " Barepatch," the plains eastward of Te Anau Lake, between the Marui and Upokoro Rivers. Thus the three known examples have been taken from localities ninety miles apart, and over an interval of thirty-five years, so it is evident 'chat they iifcill survive. Net more than a year ago a Maori shearer assured me 'ihat there were still plenty of them in certain localities in the district above mentioned. If, as seems probable, a rich goldfield is discovered in the Sounds region, it is greatly to be feared that the genus will become extinct in New Zealand, as they %re evidently easily caught by dogs, and diggers are not game preservers or naturalists ; but a / Government proclamation, forbidding, under heavy penalties, the destruction off notornis, kiwi, or kakapo, would be a step in the right direotion. The Acclimatisation Societies should aliuo endeavour to obtain a small stud of these rare birds, which, if kept in a roomy, secluded domain, would probably breed a progeny extremely valuable for world-wide exchanges. Another carious faot is, that the white swamp hen of Norfolk Island is a true notornis, thus widening considerably the ancient range of the genus, and furnishing an important fact in geographical distribution.

1 Farmers who are patting in crops are experiencing much difficulty in protecting their seed from the sparrows, which begin their ravages at daybreak, and need watching until dark. A member of the Land Board informs us that as he was driving into town to attend the special meeting of the Board, on Monday, hi# curiosity was aroused by hearing the continual cracking of a whip in a field close to the road. On making enquiries he ascertained that it was a farmer with a stockwhip, and he was adopting this method of frightening the birds. He said he had been at . this work about a week, and had to be on the field from early morning until eight, or ,thai sparrows would . be down in thousands.■ The field was about seven acres in extent, and as his full time was required in watch* ing it, the crop, it would be thought, 'would not be very profitable. , However, - people who follow dairy farming tf have to get straw for winter use, and cannot abandon; cropping altogether simply because the sparrows make it expensive. — Taranaki Herald. s Remarkable Disappearance.--'Very remarkable disappearance of all dirt from everything by using Hudson's Extiuot or So*p. Reward— i health, perfect satisfaction by its : regular dally use. For clothes, linen, knives, forks, dishes, saucepans, and all domestic washing, " I