Mr. W. Buller on disputed species of Neiv- Zealand Birds. 455 



savans who liad greeted me in 1838 and 1840 had been snatched 

 away by death ! I no longer met Prince Charles Bonaparte 

 and Riccioli of Rome, Gene of Turin, Philippi di Filippi and the 

 Abbe Bernardo Marietti of Milan, General Albert de la Mar- 

 mora and the Marquis Carlo Durazzo of Genoa, Risso and 

 Verany of Nice, the Abbe Francesco Baldacconi of Sienna, Dr. 

 Carlo Passerini of Florence, Carlo Porro of Lombardy — this last 

 murdered by Croatians in 1848 on their flight from Milan, whence 

 he had been brought as an hostage. May their memory always 

 remain blest to me ! It is consoling always to be able to assert 

 that the Italian ornithologists who have followed their footsteps 

 are equally filled with the love of science, which is always held 

 in honour in the New Italy — una e libera, where I found, as of 

 old, an hospitality and a cordiahty worthy of imitation among 

 other nations. 



Liege, 25th April, 1870. 



XXXIII. — Remarks on some disputed species of New-Zealand 

 Birds. By Walter Buller, F.L.S., F.G.S., C.M.Z.S. 



* The Ibis ' for October last contains an article from the pen 

 of Dr. Otto Finsch, on some species of New-Zealand birds pre- 

 viously described by me as new. The writer, after noticing 

 the receipt of a large collection of skins from Dr. Haast, states 

 that he found among them some of the species characterized as 

 new in my ' Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand,^ and 

 in a paper which I afterwards contributed to 'The Ibis' for 

 January 1869, and adds that " some of those so-called new 

 species are by no means new to science." 



While I do not undervalue the opinions of so expert an orni- 

 thologist as Dr. Finsch, and do not fail to appreciate the more 

 extended means of comparison and research which he possesses 

 over the local naturalist in New Zealand, who, far removed 

 from the great libraries and museums of the scientific world, 

 is cast very much on his own resources, yet I feel that I enjoy 

 at least one important advantage over the closet-naturalist, how- 

 ever extensive his general knowledge, in being able to study the 

 objects themselves in the field of nature. 



