Letters, Announcements, §c. 329 



Wing, 

 inches. 



1. Buller, " <? H. brunnea " 90 



2. Gurney, no. 6, " $ [?] immature " 9-25 



3. Mus. Brit. no. 6 9-35 



4. Mus. Brit. no. 8 9-45 



5. Mus. Brit. no. 9 ... ' 95 



6. Hutton, no. 7 9-6 



7. Mus. Brit. no. 7 9-7 



8. Hutton, no. 8 9-8 



9. Mus. Brit. no. 5 [ <$ ] 9-9 



10. Mus. Brit. nos. 1, 41 ,- -, ,„„ 



11. Hutton, nos. 5, 6 I L J 



12. Mus. Brit. no. 2 10-3 



13. Mus. Brit. no. 3 10-5 



14. Hutton, no. 1 [ $ ] 10-95 



15. Buller, " $ H. brunnea " 11-0 



16. Hutton, no. 4 [ $ ] 11-2 



17. Buller, " J H. novce zealandice " 11-25 



18. Mus. Brit, no. 10 11-35 



19. Mus. Brit. no. 12 11-4 



20. Buller, " $ H. novce zealandice" 11-5 



21-24. Mus. Brit. nos. 11, 13, 14, 15 11-5 



25. Hutton, no. 2 ) r ~ -, , n -_ 



26. Gurney, no. s\ [2] U ''° 



27. Hutton, no. 3 [ $ ] 11-8 



Thus we have the measurement of the wing in twenty-seven 

 specimens. Those in the museum are numbered as above 

 indicated, in case of future verification ; I have not recorded 

 the exact locality of the specimens, which are from both the 

 north and south islands of New Zealand and from the Auck- 

 land Islands, as my object in this communication is to show 

 the gradual gradation from one bird to the other as regards 

 the length of wing. Leaving out of the calculation Nos. 7 

 and 8 of Captain Hutton's last list (Ibis, 1873, p. 101), con- 

 cerning which Dr. Buller can doubtless give us a satisfactory 

 explanation, and taking into account only those which offer 

 evidence of having been carefully sexed, the question for de- 

 termination seems to be, whether, if there are two species, 

 a large female of H. brunnea may overlap a small male of 

 H. nova zealandice, and, therefore, what is the maximum 

 length of Aving attained by the sexes of these birds ? For in- 



