Rallus brachipus, Swains., An. in Menag., p. 336.

Lewinia brachypus, Bonap. Compt. Rend. de l'Acad. Sci., tom. XLIII. Séances des 15 et 22 Sept., 1856.

Rallus lewinii, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol. VI., pl. 77.

Baron A. von Hügel, in a communication to ‘The Ibis’ (July 1875), writing from Christchurch, says:—“I have received a rail killed on the Auckland Islands by the unfortunate Captain Musgrave of the ‘Grafton.’ As soon as I got the bird I was struck with its resemblance to one of the Rallidæ I was acquainted with, but for some time could not make out which. At last it struck me that it must be the Australian Rallus brachypus, and on comparing the Auckland with the Australian bird, I found them to agree very closely, though the colouring seemed different, but as the Canterbury Museum specimen appears to be very old and faded, it is impossible to judge. I shall be able to determine if my rail is Rallus brachypus, or new, as soon as I get to Melbourne, there being a good series there. At all events it is the first rail known to have been procured in the group.”

? Ocydromus brachypterus, Lafr., Mag. de Zool., 1842, pl. 42.

As already explained in my paper on the genus Ocydromus,^* the above is the fourth New Zealand species, if another is really admissible.

Cabalus modestus, Hutton, Ibis, July, 1872.

Several specimens of this now well-established form have been received from the Chatham Islands.

Numenius cyanopus, Vieill., 2nd Edit. du Nouv. Dict. d'Hist. Nat., tom. VIII., p. 306.

The occurrence of this species in New Zealand was first mentioned by myself, on the authority of Dr. Hector, in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. VII., p. 224; and in the following year, Dr. von Haast described two male specimens, obtained in Canterbury (Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. IX., pp. 427–429).

Numenius uropygialis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc., part VIII., p. 175.

Specimen shot at the Wairau and presented to the Colonial Museum by Mr. Travers. Noticed in my communication to the Wellington Philosophical Society on 10th February, 1875.^†

Himantopus albicollis, Buller, Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. VII., p. 224.

Sp. nov. Capite toto cum collo undique et corpore subtus toto albis; inter-scapulio, scapularibus cum dorso summo et tectricibus alarum nigris; remiges angustè albido terminatis; subalaribus nigris; dorso postico et uropygio albis; caudâ nigrâ: rostro nigro: pedibus pallidè cruentatis.

Limnocinclus acuminatus, Horsf.; Jard. and Selb. I.O., pl. 91.

Several specimens in Canterbury Museum.

Platalea regia, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc., part V., p. 106.

The first authentic record of the occurrence of this fine Australian bird in New Zealand is contained in my paper on the subject, read before the Wellington Philosophical Society in July, 1876 (Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. IX., p. 337) based on a specimen obtained at Manawatu, forwarded to me by Mr. C. Hulke, and subsequently presented by myself to the Colonial Museum.

? Mergus australis, Hombr, and Jacq., Ann. des Sci. Nat., 1841, p. 320.

In the communication already noticed, Baron von Hügel writes:—“I procured a pair of Mergansers with a few other skins in Invercargill, from a man who had just returned from a surveying trip to the Auckland Islands. He had not even turned the skin after taking it off the body; but as soon as I saw the back through the opening, and felt the beak through the skin of the neck, I knew what I had. * * * * I have compared this Mergus with the original description of Mergus australis, in the voyage of the ‘Astrolabe’; from it I find that either the description is a very poor one, or my two birds must belong to a new species. But what agrees well, and made me first think they were an immature pair of birds, is the lower surface of the body, which, instead of being white as in M. serrator, is of a dull slaty grey, variegated with white bands (the feathers being edged with white). The whole plumage is very dark, approaching black on the back, the crest well formed, and the size, I fancy, considerably smaller than the British red-breasted Merganser (M. serrator). From the great difference in size and brightness of colouring in bill and feet, I deem them to be male and female; but in plumage there is little difference. The birds were killed the latter end of November last, and I procured them on the 27th of the following month.”

Stercorarius antarcticus, Gray, Gen. of Birds, III., p. 653.

A living example in my possession, obtained at Waikanae, in the North Island. (See Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. X., p. 207.)

Stercorarius parasiticus, Buller, Birds of New Zealand, p. 268.

Three more examples have been obtained since the capture mentioned in my work.

Diomedea cauta, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc., Part VIII., p. 177.

Prof. Hutton added this bird to the New Zealand avifauna, on the authority of a specimen captured at Blueskin Bay, in Otago, and in last year's volume of Transactions, I described very fully an adult female, taken on the beach near the Wellington Pilot Station, and brought to me alive.

Procellaria affinis, Buller, Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. VII., p. 215.

Sp. nov. Supra saturatè cinereus; dorsi plumis et supra-caudalibus nigro terminatis; alarum minimis et alâ spuriâ nigricanti-brunneis; primariis extùs nigricanti-brunneis, intùs albis; secundariis pallidè cinereis, albo augustè marginatis, basaliter albis; rectricibus saturatè cinereis, duabus externis intùs albidis; fronte albâ cinerascenti-nigro variâ; regione suboculari conspicuè cinerascenti-nigrâ; facie laterali guttureque albis; pectore imo et abdomine cinereis plumis basaliter albis; corpore reliquo subtùs albâ, pectoris lateribus cinereo lavatis, hypochondriis et subcaudalibus inferioribus cinereo variis et minutè transfasciatis; subalaribus albis, exterioribus conspicuè nigricantibus: rostro nigro: pedibus sordidè flavis, digito externo et membranis interdigitalis nigris.

Dr. Finsch suggests that my P. affinis, as described above, may turn out to be P. mollis. I am unable at present to adopt this view, and for the following reasons:—

Procellaria mollis (the soft-plumaged petrel) was discovered by Mr. Gould, who first described it in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History (Vol. VIII., p. 363), and afterwards figured it in his Birds of Australia, Vol. VII., pl. 50. In his Handbook, at page 454, Vol. II., he has given a full description of the adult bird, from which I take the following particulars, by way of comparison:—Total length 13 ½ inches; wing 9 ¾; tail 5; tarsus 1 ⅝. My bird has an extreme length of 13 inches, the wing (from the flexure) measures 10.5, the tail 4, and the tarsus 1.2. It will be seen, therefore, that taking the two birds to be of somewhat equal size, (the length of a dried specimen being always an uncertain measurement), Procellaria mollis, with a wing nearly an inch shorter than P. affinis, has a decidedly longer tarsus and the tail a full inch longer. In a group of birds, where the species are so closely allied, this test of relative proportion in the functional parts is, I consider, a sound means of discriminating species. The plumage of P. affinis has a close general resemblance to that of three other allied species, forming together, as I have before, pointed out, a very natural group or sub-genus. In the full description which I have reproduced above, there are some details of colouring which are, I think, due to immaturity, but the general plumage comes nearer to P. cookii than to P. mollis, although in other respects, as pointed out in my original description of the new bird, the two forms are specifically distinct and easily discriminated.^*

Procellaria mollis, Gould, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIII., p. 363.

Dr. Finsch has added this species to our list on the authority of a specimen captured by the Novara Expedition. After what has been said above, the identification (in the absence of measurements) may be open to question, as between this species and Procellaria affinis.

Procellaria cærulea, Gmel., Sys. Nat., I., p. 560.

In my account of this species^* I referred to the scarcity of specimens in the colony, the Auckland Museum alone at that time possessing it.

I received last year a specimen in very perfect plumage from Mr. C. H. Robson of Cape Campbell.

It is readily distinguished by the scapulars being edged and the tail-feathers broadly tipped with white.

Priocella antarctica, Gmelin, Syst. Nat., I., 565; Sharpe, App. Zool. Ereb. and Ter., 1875, 37.

I am in doubt as to the propriety of admitting this species into our avifauna, the specimen described by Dr. Hector^† having been shot in lat. 46. S., long. 118. 9″ E., or “about 1,000 miles west of Tasmania, and in the latitude of Otago.” It was included among the ‘Birds of New Zealand’ in the “Voyage of the ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror;’ ” and one or more of the five specimens in the British Museum are said to have been captured in our seas, but the evidence is by no means complete.

Phæton rubricauda, Bodd.; Gould, Birds of Austr., VII., pl. 73.

The claim of this species to be considered a New Zealand inhabitant is fully discussed in my paper of the 12th January last (Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. X., pp. 219–220).

Plotus novæ-hollandiæ, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc., part XV., p. 34.

The occurrence of this Australian species in New Zealand was recorded by me in October, 1874 (Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. VII, p. 217).

Phalacrocorax finschi, Sharpe, Ibis.

Mr. Bowdler Sharpe has distinguished, under the above name, a specimen from New Zealand, in the British Museum, differing from P. brevirostris in having a white spot on the wing-coverts. (See my notes, on a hitherto undescribed form, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. VIII., p. 197, and Vol. IX., pp. 338–340).

Phalacrocorax chalconotus,^‡ Gray, Voy. Err. and Terr., Birds, p. 20, pl. 21.

Dr. Finsch has identified an example of this species, forwarded to him by Prof. Hutton, from Otago.