650 Proceedings. 



Fourth Meeting : 25th July, 1894. 



Mr. C. Huike, Vice-president, in the chair. 



New Members.— Mi. Eobert Orr, Dr. H. Pollen, Mr. E. F. 

 Hadfield. 



Papers. — -1. " On a New Species of Fern-bird (Sphenceacus) 

 from the Snares Islands ; with an Exhibition of Specimens," 

 by Sir W. L. Buller, F.R.S. (Transactions, p. 127.) 



2. " Notes on the Flightless Duck of the Auckland Islands 

 (Nesonetta auchlandica) ," by Sir W. L. Buller, F.R.S. (Trans- 

 actions, p. 128.) 



3. "Notes on the Ornithology of New Zealand; with an 

 Exhibition of Rare Specimens," by Sir W. L. Buller, F.R.S. 

 (Transactions, p. 104.) 



Sir James Hector asked if the differences between the various 

 species of the outlying islands exceeded the limits of variation within 

 New Zealand itself. For instance, the Chatham Island pigeon on the 

 table does not appear to vary from the normal so much as several 

 specimens in the Museum. The Antipodes Island parrakeet is, no 

 doubt, distinct, but the supposed representative species of the New 

 Zealand red top seems very doubtful. The change of name of the 

 North Island woodhen is also only founded on slight difference of 

 plumage ; yet he had seen in the south-west coast black woodhens 

 with three red and four black chicks nearly full-grown. The Chatham 

 Island pukeko is another case of a species determined on very slender 

 plumage characters. He would like to see more attention paid to 

 characters derived from the internal anatomy of birds in their classi- 

 fication. He admired Sir W. Buller's inference respecting the climbing 

 habits of the flightless duck of the Auckland Islands, and no doubt the 

 skeleton of that bird will show evidence of its modification and adapta- 

 tion to this novel mode of progression. To make a new species he held 

 that divergence from the type must be due to influences extending over 

 a long period of time and in an isolated locality. 



Mr. Hulke was glad to hear Sir W. Buller protesting so strongly 

 against the wholesale destruction of our native birds. They certainly 

 should be protected. Those beautiful birds the tui and the bell-bird 

 were fast disappearing. 



Sir W. Buller, in reply, said that Sir James Hector's remarks had 

 raised the old qucestio vcxata, What is a species ? It could not be denied 

 that the line of demarcation between species and varieties is and ever 

 will be an uncertainty. As he, the speaker, had pointed out on a former 

 occasion, the "species" of one naturalist is the "subspecies" of another, 

 and the " local variety " of a third. Sir James Hector's observations as 

 to the difficulty of distinguishing between the black woodhen and the 

 brown woodhen in the South Island was a case in point. Several species 

 of this genus appear to run into one another by almost insensible grada- 

 tions, and it is extremely difficult to draw the line between them. As to 

 the amount of constant difference sufficient to distinguish one species 

 from another, that too is an uncertain quantity, for it is practically at 

 the discretion of the expert, and few experts are in exact agreement on 

 this point. All this goes to prove the existence of transitional forms or 

 "incipient species." Sir James Hector had expressed his belief that 

 external characters, such as the coiour of the plumage, and so forth, were 

 of very little value as compared with the anatomical structure. That 



