142 Transactions. — Zoology. 



he feared that constant exposure to the light would have a 

 damaging effect on the bright plumage. In the " Bird-room," 

 however, they are always accessible to students, and may be 

 examined with more satisfaction than in hermetically-sealed 

 show-cases. 



The specimen which I have the pleasure of exhibiting to- 

 night is, so far as I can remember, almost exactly similar to 

 the type of Nestor esslingii. There is a very slight indication 

 of the toothed markings on the under - surface of the tail- 

 feathers ; but, as I have already shown, the authorities differ 

 as to their presence or entire absence in the original specimen. 

 The curious part of the story, however, is that the bird now 

 exhibited is one of three, all marked alike, recently obtained 

 in the same locality (District of Marlborough) — all three of 

 which I have had an opportunity of examining. One would have 

 felt much inclined to rehabilitate Nestor esslingii as a species 

 but for the fatal circumstance that one of them has the lower 

 mandible on one side yellowish-white, betraying the latent 

 tendency in the bird to albinism. I still feel satisfied, there- 

 fore, that this handsome bird is only a variety of Nestor 

 meridionalis, the most variable of all our indigenous Parrots. 



2. Stringops habroptilus, Gray. (Kakapo.) 



I have described in " The Birds of New Zealand ' (vol. i., 

 pp. 177-78) several remarkable varieties of this bird, the 

 tendency generally being towards a more or less yellow 

 plumage. The bird exhibited this evening is no exception to 

 that rule. It is paler-coloured than any specimen I have 

 hitherto seen, the entire under-surface being dull lemon- 

 yellow clouded with obscure green and brown, the upper 

 parts much suffused with yellow, the tail-feathers clear lemon- 

 yellow with black shafts and obscurely barred and toothed 

 with brown, the primaries lemon-yellow and the secondaries 

 greenish-yellow, with similar blackish-brown markings to 

 those of the ordinary bird. 



3. Apteryx oweni, Gould. (Grey Kiwi.) 



This bird is the nearest approach to a perfect albino that I 

 have yet met with among individuals of this species, there 

 being only a tinge of yellowish-brown on the plumage of the 

 upper surface. As already mentioned, I have recorded five 

 albinoes, all more or less stained with yellow or brown, and 

 one partial albino, presenting only irregular patches of white. 

 This specimen was received from Canterbury ; so also were 

 the other two birds described above. 



