132 Transactions. — Zoology. 



P.S. — Since the above was written I have had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining some further specimens of Phalacrocorax 

 carunculatus from the White Eocks, Queen Charlotte Sound, 

 the only locality in New Zealand, so far as we are aware, in 

 which this species is to he found. Captain Fairchild informs 

 me that there is still a small colony of these birds, numbering 

 from fifteen to twenty, breeding on the rocks. On the 

 occasion of his visit last week he found the young hatched 

 out, but still occupying the nests. Four of these, of different 

 sizes, clothed in thick down, he brought over with him in the 

 " Hinemoa," and I have sent them up to the Papaitonga 

 Lake, where I trust they will thrive and ultimately breed. 

 Two old birds, both females, were shot by the crew and 

 the skins preserved. I had an opportunity of examining one 

 of these. The pad of orange caruncles on the brow, on each 

 side of the head, is very prominent, and as it is entirely 

 absent in some examples I take it to be a feature peculiar to 

 the breeding-season. There is no appearance whatever of a 

 crest, or even an elongation of the coronal feathers. The 

 white alar bar is very conspicuous ; so is the dorsal double 

 patch of white. The naked space around and in front of the 

 eyes is entirely dark-blue ; and the feet are flesh-coloured. 



Nestling. — Covered with sooty down. Fore part of head, 

 face, and throat, perfectly bare ; the skin, which is jet-black, 

 presenting a granulated surface, and having the appearance of 

 kid -leather. Upper mandible brownish-black; the under 

 mandible, except at the tip, as well as the skin at its base, 

 in a straight line from the angle of the mouth, bluish-white, 

 the black colouring of the skin beyond, however, being con- 

 tinued, in a tapering streak, to a point within the rami. 

 Under each eye there is a minute round spot of white. Legs- 

 and feet dark-grey, the webs lighter. — W.L.B. Wellington, 

 25th September, 1894. 



Art. VIII. — Note on (Estrelata neglecta ; ivith an Exhibition 



of SjJecimens. 



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



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 5th September, 



2891.] 



When I had the privilege of placing before you on the 25th 

 July last a budget of ornithological notes I took occasion to 

 refer to Professor Hutton's supposed new species of Petrel 

 from the Kermadec Islands, to which he had given the name 



