Abstract
(1) MR. THOMSON is well known among zoologists by his discovery of Anaspides, a very interesting genus of Crustacea, on Mount Wellington, Tasmania. In this volume he has collected observations made in the neighbourhood of Dunedin during the last thirty years. The articles appeared originally in the New Zealand Press, and were obviously written without any intention of subsequent issue in volume form. They are necessarily somewhat slight, and touch upon a great variety of topics without systematic treatment. Yet they possess a value which often attaches to first-hand observation written down at the time, for the animals and plants of the island are undergoing a rapid change. Destruction of the bush and the importation of a European element has transformed the neighbourhood, not only of Dunedin, but of other parts of New Zealand. The indigenous plants, insects, and birds are, in many places, becoming scarce, or have disappeared, and only a few more tenacious or more resistent have survived the process of change which has accompanied the development of the South Island. Hence these notes of garden and field life will be of interest to all who are anxious to preserve records of older societies, whether of animals or plants. It would be of the greatest interest to discover how rapidly and completely the introduced flora and fauna acquire the new periodicity of the seasons in New Zealand, and Mr. Thomson's notes may give the requisite stimulus to observers for further investigation on the indigenous and alien organisms of that country.
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Nature Studies in New Zealand and at Home . Nature 81, 162–163 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/081162a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/081162a0