Letters, Announcements, S^c. 93 



SiRj — Some months since a letter appeared in ' The Ibis ' 

 from Captain F. W. Huttou, calling in question my conclu- 

 sions as to the distinctness of Hieracidea nova-zealandia and 

 H. hrunnea. As there was, in point of fact, nothing to answer, 

 and as the circumstance of my having accidentally, as it seems, 

 given the symbol $ upside down on some of the labels in my 

 collection appeared to me a very unworthy quibble for a na- 

 turalist, I did not take any notice of that letter ; but wrote 

 instead to friends in the colony, urging them to help us in 

 the inquiry by collecting larger series of carefully sexed spe- 

 cimens, and by making further and closer observations on the 

 habits of the species. 



The last number, however, of ' The Ibis ' contains two com- 

 munications from Capt. Hutton, upon which, with your per- 

 mission, I will offer a few observations. 



In the first place, as to Tr'ibonyx mortieri. If the facts as 

 communicated by Mr. Purdie are true, viz. that the bird 

 brought home by Mr. Bills was obtained at Hobart Town 

 and kept for a time in the Otago Acclimatization Gardens — 

 then, in common with every lover of truth, I am much ob- 

 liged to Captain Hutton for exposing a wilful deception. 



The bird in question was purchased from Mr. Bills by the 

 Zoological Society as a New-Zealand bird; and I received a 

 letter from Dr. Sclater apprising me of the fact and kindly 

 placing it at my service. Mr. Bills, whom I saw personally 

 on the subject, declared that it had been obtained on the 

 shores of Lake Waihora, in the interior of the Otago pro- 

 vince, and gave me a circumstantial account of its capture ! 

 As there was nothing improbable in the occurrence of such a 

 form in New Zealand, or rather (as I have pointed out in my 

 Introduction, p. xviii) as such a form might naturally be 

 looked for there, I did not of course discredit the story, and 

 was only too glad to accept Dr. Sclater^s offer to make use 

 of the Society's woodcut in my notice of the species. 



Secondly as regards Rallus modestus. Captain Hutton 

 combats my judgment in referring his type specimen to 

 Rallus dieffenbachii, juv. (' Birds of New Zealand,-* p. 180), 

 and enters upon a long argument to prove that not only are 



