Buller. — Notes on New Zealand Birds. 53 



dull-grey in the throat ; foreneck, breast, and the rest of the 

 under parts, as well as the sides of the body, marked with 

 numerous narrow, transverse, broken bars of yellowish-brown ; 

 these markings continued, but in a fragmentary and scattered 

 manner, on the upper surface of wings ; on the bastard quills, 

 and on the under tail-coverts they are broader, lighter, and 

 more regular ; quills blackish-brown, each vane crossed at 

 regular intervals by triangular markings of fulvous-brown. 

 Bill and feet uniform dark-brown. 



The two specimens differ appreciably in size, and I take 

 the smaller of the two to be the female, although the wing- 

 markings are more conspicuous than in the larger one. In 

 this latter the curve in the bill is very apparent. 



Male. — Extreme length, 9in. ; wing, from flexure, 3'2in. ; 

 tail, l-6in. ; bill, along the ridge Tom., along the edge of 

 lower mandible l - 7in. ; tarsus, l-2in.; middle toe and claw, 

 l-5in. 



Female. — Extreme length, 7*5in. ; wing, from flexure, 3in. ; 

 tail, l-5in. ; bill, along the ridge l-25in., along the edge of 

 lower mandible l-6in. ; tarsus, lin. ; middle toe and claw, 

 l-4in. 



In both specimens there is a minute spur at the flexure of 

 each wing. 



Art. IX. — Notes on Neiv Zealand Birds. 



By Sir Walter L. Buller, K.C.M.G., F.B.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 13th July, 1892.'] 



Plates V., VI. 



Before proceeding to place before this meeting my customary 

 budget of ornithological notes, I must take this opportunity of 

 congratulating those who take an interest in the birds of New 

 Zealand on the fact that, at the instance of the late Governor, 

 it has been decided by the Government to set apart two suit- 

 able islands — the Little Barrier at the north and Besolution 

 Island in the south — -as public reserves for the conservation of 

 the indigenous fauna and flora. His Excellency, in a memo- 

 randum of considerable length, which has lately been placed 

 before the General Assembly, directs the attention of hisMinis- 

 ters to the fact that many of the native species, under the 

 changed conditions of existence, are passing away ; that some 

 have already disappeared, whilst others are verging on extinc- 

 tion. He mentions that many prominent writers on zoological 



