Z

Summary

Zebra-fish, n. name given to the fish Neotephrœops zebra, Richards.

Zebra-Wolf, n. i.q. Tasmanian Wolf, or Tasmanian Tiger (q.v.).

Zelanian, a scientific term, meaning ‘pertaining to New Zealand,’ from Zelania, a Latinised form of Zealand.

Zosterops, n. the scientific name of a genus of Australian birds, often called also popularly by that name, and by the names of Wax-eye, White-eye, Silver-eye (q.v.), Ring-eye, Blight-bird (q.v.), etc. From the Greek ζωστήρ, a girdle, ‘anything that goes round like a girdle’ (‘L. & S.’), and ὤψ, the eye; the birds of the genus have a white circle round their eyes. The bird was not generally known in New Zealand until after Black Thursday (q.v.), in 1851, when it flew to the Chatham Islands. Some observers, however, noted small numbers of one species in Milford Sound in 1832. New Zealand birds are rarely gregarious, but the Zosterops made a great migration, in large flocks, from the South Island to the North Island in 1856, and the Maori name for the bird is ‘The Stranger’ (Tau-hou). Nevertheless, Buller thinks that the species Z. cœrulescens indigenous in New Zealand.