LIST OF SPECIES 



clear about it yet, although my collector is very certain 

 that they are distinct." Buller further remarks, "I 

 have before me as I write eight specimens, all from 

 Stewart Island, from which I take the following notes," 

 these notes showing that the white dorsal patch and 

 alar bar were to be found in male and female bird 

 alike. Mr. Ogilvie Grant, to whom I wrote on this 

 matter, replying in a letter of March, 1913, says, "I 

 am not in any way inclined to agree with you about 

 the kinds being one and the same species. It is probably 

 a mere accident that a Black Shag is standing beside 

 a white-breasted one." This suggestion that a stranger 

 should have been allowed to remain peaceably and 

 undisturbedly on the edge of another Shag's nest 

 cannot however be entertained. Ten other couples of 

 different plumages were thus seen together in one 

 corner of the rookery, and, in my opinion, were 

 indubitably mated. Any way, as Mill has pointed out, 

 in his clear candid way, error promulgated is often 

 the means of drawing fresh attention to truth and 

 should on that account be welcomed. If his observa- 

 tions and facts are correct, the field naturalist's sur- 

 mise and theory, even if erroneous, can do but little 

 harm. None should know better than himself that his 

 knowledge, compared to that of scientific workers at 

 Home, is as a child's to that of a man. Though it is 

 improbable that the learned world will be stirred to its 

 core over the identity of my unrighteous friends of 

 Kane-te-toe, yet ornithologists will, I am convinced, 

 welcome observations as they appear to the recorder, 

 rather than lack the chance of utterly dispelling doubt 

 and making surety doubly sure. 

 Petroeca tnacrocephala — Southern Tit — South Island 

 Tom-tit. 



In all cases the nomenclature of Hutton and 

 Drummond's "Animals of New Zealand" has been followed. 

 That is the volume most accessible to those interested in 

 our avifauna. 



