crepidatus; and he expressly states that the shafts of the primaries are white, the characteristic which particularly serves to distinguish it from Buffon's Skua, with which he has identified it. At the time that I examined the specimen in question, I was not aware of this distinctive feature; the skin, also, had been badly preserved; and, to make matters worse, the plumage was so worn and abraded that it is a marvel that the bird was able to fly at all.”

Mr. Saunders has evidently, in this case, trusted more to his memory than to the notes which, we may assume, he would make on examining a novel specimen—one which, in fact, he took to be a “a new and hitherto undescribed species.” It will be seen, at a glance, that the specimen now before the meeting (which passed through Mr. Saunders' hands in the same condition) instead of being a “badly prepared skin” is a first-class cabinet specimen, and that, instead of having “the plumage so worn and abraded as to make it a marvel that the bird could fly at all,” the wings are in perfect plumage, the only abraded feathers being about the head and neck, which could not well affect the flying capabilities of the bird.

It would almost seem that Mr. Saunders has not the courage of his opinion, although, as it turns out, his first expressed conviction on seeing my specimen is not unlikely to prove the true one after all.

Of Stercorarius crepidatus Mr. Saunders says:—“Dr. Coues follows those authors who have chosen to divert Linnæus's name of L. parasiticus to this species—a supposition utterly negatived by the description in the Syst. Nat., p. 226, which is based upon that in his ‘Fauna Suecica,’ p. 55, No. 156. Nothing could well be clearer than this statement:—‘Rectricibus duabas intermediis longissimis,’ which can only apply to Buffon's or the Long-tailed Skua; but, as if to make assurance doubly sure, Linnæus adds ‘remiges nigræ, rachi 1. 2. nivea.’ The natural inference, from drawing especial attention to the fact that the shafts of the first and second primaries are white, is clearly that those of the other primaries are not white. Now the particular characteristic by which Richardson's Skua may be distinguished, at any age beyond that of the nestling, is that the shafts of the other primaries are conspicuously lighter than in those of Buffon's Skua, in which only those of the first and second primaries are white, those of the third and successive primaries being dark. I am indebted to Mr. R. Collett, of Christiania, for pointing out to me, some years since, this excellent distinction. The Lestris parasiticus of Linnæus is therefore not S. crepidatus, but the Buffon's Skua; and so is, according to my view, Catharacta parasiticus of Brünnich, but it is needless to discuss the latter name as it is out of date.”

If Mr. Saunders is right in making this character of the shafts a specific

test, it is sufficiently evident that our bird is not Stercorarius parasiticus, as Dr. Finsch and myself had supposed; for it will be seen that in all the specimens now exhibited the whole of the primaries have white shafts.

The next point to be considered is whether Mr. Saunders is right in referring it to Stercorarius crepidatus. He says:—“Dr. Coues considers that the Larus crepidatus of Gmelin is in all probability based upon the young of the Pomatorhine Skua, to which Brisson gave the name of Stercorarius striatus. It is true that Gmelin (who translated from Latham) identifies S. striatus of Brisson with his L. crepidatus; but although S. striatus is certainly a young Pomatorhine, it was by no means easily recognizable by the naturalists of that day. * * * On referring to Hawkesworth's Voyages (1773) Vol. II., p. 15 (not Vol. I., p. 15, as erroneously cited by Latham, and of course duly copied by Gmelin, without reference), we find in the narrative of Lieut. Cook's Voyage in the ‘Endeavour’ that “on the 8th Oct., 1768, when a little to the South of the Cape-Verd Islands, Sir Joseph Banks shot the black-toed gull, not yet described according to Linnæus's system; he gave it the name of Larus crepidatus. The black-toed gull is described in Pennant's British Zoology Vol. II., p. 419 (1768); and plate 2 is an excellent representation of Richardson's Skua of the year, the feet of this species at that age having the upper parts of the webs yellowish, and the posterior portion black, giving the bird the appearance of being ‘shod’ or ‘sandalled,’ whence Bank's somewhat quaint Latin rendering.” (The italics are mine).

If this character of the coloured feet is reliable, then it is pretty evident also that our bird is not Stercorarius crepidatus; for it will be seen that in the young examples exhibited, the feet are similar to those of the adult—a uniform greyish-black—if we except a dull spot of yellow at the inner angle of the toes. There is nothing of the ‘sandalled’ appearance described by Sir Joseph Banks, though possibly a still younger bird might exhibit more of the yellow.

I do not care to pronounce any distinct opinion till I have received specimens of the European bird for comparison with ours; but it seems to me that the nearly adult example of the New Zealand bird, now exhibited, is readily separable from the adult of S. crepidatus as described in the books of reference. The “burnished acuminate feathers” on the nape are wanting in our bird, and the points of the two narrow, overlapping tail-feathers extend only two decimal parts of an inch beyond the rest, as shown in the accompanying sketch (fig. 1):—

On a comparison of these specimens it is perfectly clear that the one originally described by me in the ‘Birds of New Zealand’ is an adult bird, and not “immature” as Dr. Finsch supposed. It is in the condition of those described by Mr. Saunders from Layard's collection, “all of which were in the act of losing and renewing the central tail-feathers and the outer primaries, which are the last to be moulted.” The remarkable filamentous appearance of the central rectrices in my first bird is shown in the second sketch (fig. 2):—

Reduced to half the natural size.

Reduced to half the natural size.

There is an obvious difference in the colouration of the two quasi-adult specimens exhibited, the one having (as described in my work) the breast greyish - white and the abdomen ashygrey, tinged with brown, while the other has the entire under surface white, marked on the breast and sides with interrupted bars of sooty brown. In both, however, the under surface of the wings and the axillary plumes are of a uniform dark ashy-grey. These individual differences are thus accounted for by Mr. Saunders in treating of S. crepidatus:—“It is now well known that there are two very distinct plumages to be found in birds of this species, even in the same breeding-places—an entirely sooty form, and one with light underparts—and that white-breasted pair with whole-coloured birds as well as with those of their respective varieties. If this species is ‘dimorphic,’ the offspring of one parti-coloured and one white-coloured bird ought to resemble one or other of their parents without reference to sex. My examination of upwards of a hundred specimens from widely different localities, and in all stages, inclines me to the belief that this is not the case, and that the young of such union will be intermediate, whilst the offspring of two similar parents will ‘breed true.’ This point can only be solved by