New Zealand's extinct flightless moa radiated rapidly into a large number of morphologically diverse species, which produced an equally large range of egg morphologies. The exact number of moa species, as well as the characteristics of the eggs they laid, remains contentious. Moreover, like most extinct species, we understand little about their nesting and incubation habits. We used a modified ancient DNA extraction procedure to recover exogenous mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from the inside and outside surfaces of moa eggs. We used sequences from the inside of 69 eggshells to directly assign these remains to seven of the 10 currently recognized moa species. In addition we were able to assign, to the species level, six of the rare reconstructed "whole" eggs. These molecular results enabled us to identify two distinct lineages within the genus Euryapteryx. Members of these lineages differed in eggshell thickness, with one lineage being characterized by a relatively thin eggshell. Unexpectedly, several thin-shelled eggs were also shown to belong to the heaviest moa of the genera Dinornis, Euryapteryx and Emeus, making these, to our knowledge, the most fragile of all avian eggs measured to date. Moreover, sex-specific DNA recovered from the outer surfaces of eggshells belonging to species of Dinornis and Euryapteryx suggest that these very thin eggs were likely to have been incubated by the lighter males. The thin nature of the eggshells of these larger species of moa, even if incubated by the male, suggests that egg breakage in these species would have been common if the typical contact method of avian egg incubation was used.avian eggs | exogenous DNA | endogenous DNA | ratite | evolution N ew Zealand's extinct moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) were ratite birds. Living species of ratites include the emu and cassowary of Australia and New Guinea, the kiwi of New Zealand, and the rhea of South America. Extinct members include the elephant bird of Madagascar as well as approximately 10 species of moa (1-4). Moa were flightless and were particularly diverse in both size and in morphology (1, 2, 4-8). For example, members of the genus Dinornis were characterized by large body size, weighing as much as 250 kg, with extreme sexual dimorphism in which females were approximately twice the size of males (2, 5). In contrast, individuals of the coastal moa Euryapteryx curtus weighed as little as 9 kg (4) and females were approximately 20% larger than males. As a group, moa represented one of the most dramatic examples of morphological radiation in the history of vertebrates (1, 2, 6) and have been of international interest since originally described by Richard Owen in 1839 (9). This remarkable ratite group vanished soon after the settlement of New Zealand by Polynesians late in the 13th century (8, 10).Many questions about moa biology and evolution remain, despite more than 100 y of scientific investigation. Moa eggs ranged from 10 times the volume of a standard chicken egg (approximately 120 mm × 95 mm; ∼0.06 kg) to more than 8...

The known chemical basis of diverse avian eggshell coloration is generated by the same two classes of tetrapyrrole pigments in most living birds. We aimed to extend the evolutionary scope of these patterns by detecting pigments from extinct birds' eggs. In our samples biliverdin was successfully extracted from subfossil shell fragments of the blue-green egg-laying upland moa Megalapteryx didinus, while protoporphyrin was extracted from the beige eggs of two other extinct moa species. Our data on pigment detection from eggshells of other extant paleognath birds, together with published information on other modern lineages, confirm tetrapyrroles as ubiquitous and conserved pigments contributing to diverse eggshell colours throughout avian evolution.

The results of phylogenetic analysis of two molecular datasets sampling all three endemic New Zealand ‘honeyeaters’ (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae, Anthornis melanura and Notiomystis cincta) are reported. The undisputed relatedness of the first two species to other honeyeaters (Meliphagidae), and a close relationship between them, are demonstrated. However, our results confirm that Notiomystis is not a honeyeater, but is instead most closely related to the Callaeidae (New Zealand wattlebirds) represented by Philesturnus carunculatus in our study. An estimated divergence time for Notiomystis and Philesturnus of 33.8 mya (Oligocene) suggests a very long evolutionary history of this clade in New Zealand. As a taxonomic interpretation of these data we place Notiomystis in a new family of its own which takes the name Notiomystidae. We expect this new phylogenetic and taxonomic information to assist policy decisions for the conservation of this rare bird.

Analysis of 189 records of reptiles and amphibians accidentally imported to New Zealand between 1929 and 2000 showed that 52 species were represented, comprising lizards (65%, mainly geckos), snakes (19%, mainly colubrids) and anurans (16%, mainly hylid frogs). Three species of nocturnal, egg-laying, tropical and subtropical "house geckos" from Asia and the Pacific (especially Hemidactylus frenatus) made up 35% of all interceptions. The predominance of H. frenatus is a new development since the mid 1980s. Ectoparasitic mites were noted at 17% of gecko interceptions. Interceptions were nearly always of single animals, and were evenly spread throughout the year. The main sources of the accidental importations were Australia (26%), south-east Asia (24%) and the south-west Pacific (22%). About three-quarters of the intercepted animals were from the tropics or subtropics. Three-quarters of the animals arrived in cargo shipped to wharves, and Auckland was the entry point for about half the interceptions. The main † Author for correspondence. Z01007 Received 12 February 2001; accepted 22 May 2001 types of cargo involved were personal effects (21 %), bananas (16%), timber (10%), and motor vehicles (9%). Nearly half the intercepted animals (47%) had passed through border controls and were detected after distribution of the cargo. Animals were alive when detected in about 86% of cases.

Five-minute stationary counts of birds at Kowhai Bush over 17 months suggest that the scores for grey warblers and chaffinches may reflect vocal conspicuousness, rather than abundance, and that the scores for shining cuckoos, goldfinches, and redpolls may reflect vocal and visual conspicuousness in combination. Counts in three types of kanuka forest show that cuckoos, robins, and bellbirds favoured the mor•e dense and diverse suocessional stages; that riflemen, brown creepers, fantails, chaffinches, goldfinches, and redpolls were most abundant in less mature habitats; and that warblers and silvereyes were almost uniformly common. Cuckoos and robins overlapped the most in use of habitat, robins and redpolls the least. For both warblers and robins, indices of abundance varied between two of the habitats in proportion to the densities of resident adults, permitting caIibration of the indices. Excepting creepers and robins, native species were apparently less abundant at Kowhai Bush than in climax forest near Reefton. At Kowhai Bush in winter, creepers, warblers, and silvereyes (thr.ee of the four small native gleaners of foliage) collected prey almost entirely from kanuka, the dominant tree. Warblers foraged on 80% of occasions from living foIiage, whereas creepers fed almost equally from trunks, branches, twigs, and leaves, and silvereyes concentrated on leaves and trunks. Creepers and silvereyes overlapped the most in use of feeding stations. Also, they were exclusively gleaners, whereas warblers caught prey on 40% of Q:::casions by hovering. Warblers gleaned only in the upright position, but creepers and silvereyes often gleaned from vertical surfaces or by hanging upside down. The greatest overlap in feeding behaviour was between creepers and silvereyes. Data for four of the five small native insectivores show that warblers were half as heavy as creepers and silvereyes, and lighter on average than fantails. The tail was longer than the wing in fantails, shorter than the wing in silvereyes, and equal to the wing in warblers and creepers. The ratio of wing length to tarsometatarsus length was greatest for fantails (3.4), as befits an aerial feeder. Warblers, silvereyes, and fantaiis had bills that were wider than deep; the creeper's was slightly deeper than wide. Silvereyes had the longest bill, and creepers the longest tarsometatarsus. Indices of morphological difference show that silvereyes and creepers differed least.