little-known Limocolfe. 309 



In 1861 Mr. EUnian in a " List of New Zealand Birds " 

 (* Zoologist/ 1861, p, 7469) included " Charadrius frontalis,'' 

 with some hesitation, as follows : — " Dotterel (Pohoera) Chara- 

 drius frontalis, ? Lesson. Identical with English species? never 

 seen inland.'^ Now, although Mr. Gray seems to have taken it 

 for granted (Ibis, loc. cit.) that Anarhynchus frontalis is the 

 species here referred to, I question very much whether Mr. Ell- 

 man had at that time ever seen this bird — for two reasons : 

 first, because he makes no allusion to the remarkable form of 

 the bill; and secondly, because he calls it a Dotterel, and says 

 " identical with English species ? " I believe that Mr. Ellman's 

 bird was the Chestnut-breasted Plover, common to New Zea- 

 land and Australia {Charadrius bicinctus, Jard. & Selb., Hiati- 

 cula bicincta, Gould), and that in alluding to the "English 

 species,^' he had an indistinct recollection oiEudromias morinellus, 

 oripossihly of jEgialitis hiaticulOfknown as ''Dotterel" in Sussex, 

 Mr. EUman^s former county. The native name, which he gives, is 

 no safe guide in determining the species ; for the New Zealanders 

 give the same name, " Pohoera," to at least one other species, 

 Charadrius obscurus. The Charadrius frontalis, therefore, of Mr. 

 Ellmau, should, I think, be expunged from the list of synonyms*. 

 In 1865, Mr. Walter BuUer published an ' Essay on the orni- 

 thology of New Zealand,^ in which he referred in a few words 

 only to " Charadrius frontalis,^' remarking that the species 

 appeared to be exclusively restricted to New Zealand. This 

 paper was subsequently translated into German by Dr. Finsch, 

 and appeared in the 'Journal fiir Ornithologie ' (1867, pp. 305- 

 347); but neither there nor in some further researches on New- 

 Zealand birds {op. cit. 1868, pp. 238-245) does the Doctor 

 remark upon this species. 



At a Meeting of the Zoological Society on the 27th May last, 

 I had the pleasure to exhibit the specimen of the bird which is 

 here figured, together with the bills, which had been kindly for- 

 warded to me by M. Verreaux ; and I took the opportunity of 

 remarking that the species is so rare in European collections 

 that, besides the bird exhibited, there is but one other example 



* The Charndrins frontalis of Simdevall ((Efvers. 1850, p. 100) is Fa- 

 nelltffi mehinopterus of Rlippell (teste (.jwxway , Ibis, 1860, p. 217). 

 N. S. VOL. v. Y 



