Letters, Announcements, &;c. 



101 



for the sake of comparison, I will give the measurements of 

 three of his birds together with the others in this museum. 

 His two other specimens being fastened up in cases, I cannot 

 get at them to remeasure them. I must, however, in fair- 

 ness state that there is a possibility of my having made a mis- 

 take with the sexes of Dr. Buller's birds ; for although the sign 

 commonly used to denote " female " is correctly placed, that 

 used for " male " is turned upside down ( £> ) . Seeing that all 

 his male birds were marked in the same way, and that he had 

 also placed it in a similar manner in the list of his birds that 

 he supplied to Dr. Hector, I naturally thought that it was 

 simply a mistake caused by his slight acquaintance with the 

 signs ordinarily used by naturalists, and that he had intended 

 to express " male " by it ; but, after his explanation in ( The 

 Ibis/ I fancy that it may have been a private mark of his own 

 intended to mean " sex undetermined." 



Table of Measurements o/H. novae- zealandise. 



I will make no comment on these measurements further 

 than to observe that the four birds marked as males have all 

 slender legs and toes, while all those marked females have 

 their legs and toes far more robust ; and the same is the case 

 with the other two of Dr. Buller's specimens already men- 

 tioned, marked in his list ad. £> \_sic] and juv. ? respectively 

 — that is, supposing the first sign to mean male. 



