BuLLER. — 0?i Neio Zealand OrnitJiology. 337 



Creadion cinereus, Buller. (Jack-bird.) 



lu forwarding the specimen now exhibited my correspondent 

 writes, " During the whole four months I was camped in the 

 woods on the Karamea Saddle I only heard one Saddleback. 

 I managed to secure it, and may remark that it is the largest- 

 boned bird of the kind I ever shot. The colours are plain, 

 but the bird is in perfect plumage. I cannot say whether it 

 is a male or female, for before I had time to make a dissection, 

 after skinning it, the Woodhens ran away with the carcase." 



Miro oclirotarsus, Forster, Desr. Anim., p. 82 (1844). 



After a careful investigation of the subject and a compari- 

 son of a large number of specimens, I have come to the con- 

 elusion that there are in reality three forms of Wood-robin in 

 New Zealand, all of course descendants from a common stock, 

 but now sufficiently differentiated to bear distinctive specific 

 names. The North Island bird was the first to be recorded. 

 This is Miro australis, formerly the commonest species in our 

 woods, and now almost if not entirely extinct on the mainland, 

 but to be met with on the Little Barrier Island at the north, 

 on the Island of Kapiti in Cook Strait, and probably on other 

 outlying islands near our coasts. The two other forms belong 

 to the South Island, and have hitherto been confounded under 

 the general name of Miro albifrons. 



Mr. G. R. Gray, in the " Voyage of the ' Erebus ' and 

 'Terror'" (part "Birds"), thus describes Miro albifrons: 

 ' ' Upper surface and forepart of neck sooty-black ; under surface 

 pale-rufescent ; front with a small spot of white. Length 

 Tin." This is the Turdus albifrons of Gmelin's Svst. Nat., 

 p. 822. 



Now, that description exactly fits the two examples (male 

 and female) from Pelorus Sound which I have the pleasure of 

 exhibiting this evening. But Mr. Gray's description does not 

 accord with the coloured figure which he gives of the bird. 

 Referring to this figure, in my account of the species (" Birds 

 of New Zealand," p. 36) I said, "The figure of this species 

 in the ' Voyage of the " Erebus " and " Terror " ' is incorrect, 

 on account of the exaggerated extent of white on the under- 

 parts ; but the attitude is a very characteristic one." It 

 seems pretty clear, therefore, that the description and the 

 figure represent different birds. 



After diagnosing Miro albifrons, as quoted above, Mr. Gray 

 says, " The original of this description is contained among 

 the drawings of Forster, and it is very like Petroica longipes, 

 Garn. (= Miro australis). The figure of Forster differs, bow- 

 ever, from the bn*d referred to by the white extending from 

 the forepart of the breast to the base of the tail, leaving the 

 throat of the same colour as the back. I have subjoined a 

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