458 Prof. F. W. Hutton on 



consequently the annexed table is confined to measurements 

 only. Every individual was examined as to its sex by myself, 

 as well as by Mr. Jennings, taxidermist to the Museum, and 

 in one case only is there any doubt on this point. The mea- 

 surements were all taken by myself in the flesh, accord- 

 ing to the directions given by Dr. Cones in his ' Key to North- 

 American Birds/ p. 55. The length of the toes does not in- 

 clude the claws, as these are subject to much variation. The 

 measurements are in inches and decimal parts of an inch. 



It is necessary to take the measurements of the two sup- 

 posed species from Dr. Buller's Avork; for although several 

 of the specimens in the British Museum have the sex attached, 

 Mr. Sharpe appears to doubt the accuracy of the labels, as 

 he does not give their dimensions, but only quotes Dr. Buller. 

 Now an inspection of my table will show that, according to 

 Dr. Buller, the specimen B should be a male, and A a female, 

 of H. novee-zealandia , while all the rest would be males of 

 H. australis. But B is a female bird, and it is too large to 

 belong to H. australis ; consequently we must assume, if Dr. 

 Buller be right, that the female of H. nova-zealandia is some- 

 times no larger than the male. Again, if there are two 

 species, then, although both are found in the neighbourhood, 

 all the males that have come into this Museum belong to 

 H. australis, while the two females belong to H. novas- 

 zealandia. 



I have no doubt that Mr, Sharpe, and also Dr. Buller, 

 would be of opinion that there is only one species if it were 

 not for the measurements of a few specimens, the sex of which 

 is said to be accurately known. It is necessary therefore to 

 examine these cases. They are three in number, and all come 

 from the Canterljury Museum. 



The first is a male of H. nuvce-zealandiis, mentioned by 

 Dr. Buller at page 3 of his ' Birds of New Zealand,' the sex 

 of which was ascertained by Dr. v. Haast. This bird is much 

 larger than any of the males in my table, but agrees in size 

 with the female marked B. 



The second individual is a female of H. australis, men- 

 tioned by Dr. Buller in the introduction to his ' Birds of New 



