Wellington Philosopliical Society. Gil 



evolution. As to the alleged wortklcssness of colouu as a criterioii for 

 discriminatiug species, lie could not agree with Mr. Maskell, because our 

 whole experience ^Ya3 opposed to such an argument. The cases put for- 

 ward by that gentleman were not in point. For example, the condition 

 of the albino tui exhibited that evening was due to an accidental absence 

 of the colouring-pigment in the feathers. It was merely a Insus natiira, 

 or a freak of nature. However many examples of this kind might be met 

 with, no naturalist of any experience would think of creating a new 

 species out of such material. So in the case of individual peculiarities of 

 plumage mentioned by him. No one would pretend tliat these were 

 of specific value. For example, the red grouse (or brown ptarmigan), 

 one of the commonest birds of Great Britain, is so variable in colour 

 that scarcely two males can be found with precisely the same mark- 

 ings; and this was likewise the case with the common albatros and 

 some other sea-birds. This variability of plumage became, then, a 

 character of the species. But if you met with, say, two forms of sea- 

 gull, one having a black head and the other a white head, breeding true, 

 and presenting this constant character, an ornithologist would, as a matter 

 of course, treat them as distinct species, although he might not be able to 

 discover any other points of difference. On the other hand there was a 

 phase of colouring known as dimorphism, which obtained among some 

 species of sea-birds — some individuals being dark and others white in one 

 and the same species. Other birds, again, passed through several distinct 

 phases of plumage in their progress from youth to maturit}'. These 

 adolescent states, and the known instances of dimorphic coloration, did 

 not by any means affect the argument that colour is an important ex- 

 ternal character in the determination of species. On the main question, 

 however, of manifest structural or organic difference as the surest guide 

 in the differentiation, Sir Walter Buller said that he quite agreed with 

 Mr. Maskell. He would remind the meeting that the studj' of birds had 

 often to be prosecuted with nothing before the investigator but skin and 

 feathers, and that the systematist could only make the most of the 

 materials before him. He did not believe that it would be possible to 

 attain perfection in classification till the internal characters and anatomy 

 of every known bird had been as completely examined and illustrated as 

 that of the common rock dove {Cohiinba livia) had been by the late Pro- 

 fessor ilacgillivTay. 



■i'he President said he was glad that Sir Walter Buller's remarks, 

 which were most interesting, had brought on such a general discussion. 

 The great thing in the determination of species was to have the charac- 

 ters, whether of colour or otherwise, persistent, and this v>ould no doubt 

 be sufficient grounds for forming a species. 



"2. " Notes ou the Eiitomologv of the Inlancl Kaikouras," by 

 G. V. Hudson, F.E.S. 



Mr. Maskell was well acquainted with this part of the country, and 

 he was not surprised to hear that it was such poor ground for the collec- 

 tion of insects.' Large fires had frequently swept the surface of all growth, 

 and this no doubt would be unfavourable to insect-life. 



Mr. McKay thought that probably the reason why so few species of 

 insects were found in tliis locality was that as high and mountainous 

 country this comer of the South Island was of very recent date, and it 

 might be that many species had not 5-et found their way into the region 

 in question, or liad been there for so short a period that by evolution fresh 

 species had not as yet made their appearance. 



The President took this opportunity of stating that, as agreed upon 

 at a former meeting, he had, in company with Sir Walter Buller, waited on 

 the Zilinister of Education to urge the" Government to assist r^Ir. Hudson 

 in the publication of his new work on New Zealand entomology, with the 



