458 Mr. W. Buller ua some disputed 



indicated by " the west coast " is an extensive one, stretching 

 as it does from Cape Farewell in the north to the furthest limits 

 of the Otago Province. I submit, therefore, that Dr. Finsch^s 

 opinion, resting on such data, and regarding a bird which he 

 has never had an opportunity of examining, is far from being 

 conclusive. The following notes from so careful an observer as 

 Dr. Hector, are much more to the purpose, because they con- 

 tain the evidence of a field-naturalist on a very material point : — 

 "The range of this species is very limited. It frequents the 

 precipitous wooded cliffs in the neighbourhood of George Sound, 

 I never met with it in the forests of the lowlands. It is more 

 active in its habits, and more Hawk-like in its flight, than the 

 common Nestor. It often sweeps suddenly to the ground ; and 

 the cry diffei's from that of the common Kaka in being more 

 shrill and wild." 



Gerygone assimilis. 



Dr. Finsch condemns this species, because a specimen re- 

 ceived from Dr. Haast, and labelled " Gerygone assimilis" 

 agrees in every respect with G. jlaviventris. I am not aware 

 that this species occurs in the South Island, and I demur to 

 being held in any viay accountable for wrongly-named specimens 

 which I have never had an opportunity of identifying. Dr. 

 Haast^s specimen has apparently been labelled G. assimilis in 

 error, which w^ould account for Dr. Finsch being "at once con- 

 vinced that the skin of this species is not distinguishable from 

 that of the true G. Jlaviventris," especially as he adds that the 

 specimen agrees in every respect with the description and figure 

 given by Mr. G. R. Gray. 



TURNAGRA HECTORl. 



Dr. Finsch is no doubt right as to the identification, by the 

 editor of ' The Ibis,^ of my bird with Otagon tanagra, Schlegel, 

 a description of which appeared in the ' Nederlandsch Tijd- 

 schrift voor de Dierkunde' (iii. p. 190) in 1865, without any 

 habitat being assigned to it ; and it was noticed in the ' Recoi-d 

 of Zoological Literature^ (ii. p. 112) for that year; but 1 

 believe I am right in stating that no description had appeared 

 in English before the publication of my article in ' The Ibis.^ 



