Birds of New Zealand. 39 



above (!). The colour, however, and small size are sufficient 

 proofs that they cannot belong to C.novcs-zealandiee ; and when 

 Mr. Potts saw them he at once recognized them as the eggs 

 of a Stormy Petrel. Both Mr. H. Travers and myself now 

 believe that they belong to Thalassidroma fregata. 



It is the more necessary that I should coiTcct this mistake 

 as Dr. Buller in his book (p. 160) states that the egg of C. 

 novce-zealandiee is " 15 inch in length by 1*1 in breadth ; the 

 surface is smooth without being glossy, and, as a rule, pure 

 white, but sometimes marked with obscure purplish spots at 

 the thicker end,"*^ and, although not given as a quotation, the 

 measurements and latter part of this description must have 

 been taken from my paper in ' The Ibis,' as they correspond 

 entirely with it. The egg of this bird is still a desideratum 

 in collections. 



OCYDROMUS EARLI. 



It is much to be regretted that Dr. Buller does not produce 

 better evidence in support of his statement that this bird oc- 

 casionally breeds with the Barn-door Fowl. It is certainly 

 astonishing that a naturalist should see and '' carefully ex- 

 amine " several supposed hybrids, and never preserve speci- 

 mens, nor even take an intelligible description of them, nor 

 ascertain what these supposed hybrids developed into. Dr. 

 Buller cannot expect that other natm'alists \dW. accept as true 

 a statement made in such a loose and unscientific manner. 



OCYDROMUS AUSTRALIS. 



The male bird described by Dr. Buller under this name is 

 O. troglodytes (Gm.), while the female is the true O. aus~ 

 trails (Sparrm.) . These two species are quite distinct, as has 

 been pointed out by Dr. Finsch in the ' Journal fur Ornitho- 

 logie,' May 1872, p. 174 &c. Another species of this genus 

 has been lately received at the Colonial museum from Otago, 

 which I shall shortly describe. 



Charadrius fulvus. 



Dr. Buller states that this bird " occurs occasionally on the 

 New-Zealand coast ; " but as both Mr. Gould and Dr. Jerdon 



