102 Letters, Announcements, &;c. 



Of these birds those supplied by Messrs. Travers and Hud- 

 dleston all came from the South Island. Where Dr. Buller's 

 birds came from I cannot say ; for not a single bird in his col- 

 lection has either date or locality upon it. 



Both Dr. Finsch and Dr. Buller seem inclined to laugh at 

 me for attaching any importance to such a trivial character 

 as the slenderness of a Hawk's legs. By Dr. Buller, however, 

 it seems to be only a "worthless character" (Birds of N. Z. 

 p. 4) when used by me ; for three pages further on in his book 

 (/. c. p. 7), in his observations on H. brunnea, he says, "This 

 species closely resembles H. novce-zealandia, but is decidedly 

 smaller, and has more slender legs and claws." Dr. Finsch, 

 on the other hand, does not appear to find fault with me so 

 much for mentioning this character (for he must be aware 

 of what is well known to every falconer, that the Tiercel has 

 always more slender legs than the Falcon) as for being so 

 foolish as to measure dried legs. But, I would ask him, in 

 what other way would he endeavour to convey to his readers 

 an impression as to the amount of difference between the legs 

 of the two ? Every naturalist knows that measurements of 

 all kinds are to be taken with considerable latitude ; and why 

 Dr. Finsch should object to my measuring the circumference 

 of legs because they may vary in size, while he gives such 

 elaborate tables of measurements, all of which are variable, I 

 cannot understand. The fact is, that the legs of dried skins 

 do not shrink so very unequally (which is the main point), 

 and the limits between measurements due to variation in size 

 of living birds are far wider than those due to the shrink- 

 ing of the skin on the tarsus. 



I still adhere to my opinion that the male of H. novce-zea- 

 landia can be easily distinguished from the female by its more 

 slender legs ; and Dr. Buller's book has not yet converted me 

 to the opinion that that " worthless character," slenderness 

 of legs, is the chief characteristic of H. brunnea. 



F. W. Hutton. 



Colonial Museum, Wellington. 

 September 6, 1872. 



