Download

Birds collected and reported by the Austrian Novara Expedition while in northern New Zealand in December 1858 and January 1859 are described. These included birds collected at sea east of Northland and Auckland, and birds seen and collected between the Auckland isthmus and Waikato River during 18 days that SMS Novara was at Auckland. Notable records include the earliest known specimen of Pycroft’s petrel (Pterodroma pycrofti), and the earliest record of Kermadec petrel (Pt. neglecta) from near the New Zealand mainland. Scientists from the Novara encountered many species that are now rare or absent near Auckland city and northern Waikato, including brown teal (Anas chlorotis), long-tailed cuckoo (Eudynamys taitensis), New Zealand falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae), kākā (Nestor meridionalis), red-crowned parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae), yellow-crowned parakeet (C. auriceps), bellbird (Anthornis melanura), whitehead (Mohoua albicilla), and North Island robin (Petroica longipes), and possibly also North Island saddleback (Philesturnus rufusater) and the extinct North Island piopio (Turnagra tanagra). Other specimens obtained in Auckland (of uncertain provenance) included North Island kokako (Callaeas wilsoni) and hihi (Notiomystis cincta). All these species became much scarcer or extinct following the introduction of ship rats (Rattus rattus) and stoats (Mustela ermina) and other mammalian predators to New Zealand after 1859.