A Reference List of the Birds of New Zealand, 203 



Forster's specimens and manuscript. Forster's own descrip- 

 tions were not published until almost sixty years afterwards. 



Attention must be drawn to our treatment of an article by 

 J. B. Ellman^ entitled " Brief Notes on the Birds of New 

 Zealand/'' which appeared in the 'Zoologist' for 1861, 

 pp. 746^-7473. In that list, birds were recorded from 

 hearsay and sight, and to these Latin names were affixed, 

 some of which were new. Fortunately the majority of 

 these are without description and generally synonyms, and 

 accurately indeterminable. We have therefore not included 

 them in the synonymy, as, though in many cases guesses can 

 be made as to what Ellman meant, there is too much risk and 

 no gain whatever. For instance, Ellman was the first to 

 admit Procellaria cequinoctialis to the New Zealand List, but 

 Ilutton (Cat. Birds New Zeal. p. 80, 1871) has stated that 

 the bird so determined was Pi-ion banksi ! 



Throughout this List we use trinomials wherever necessary, 

 and would note that we use them for island forms, as we 

 consider they show the relationships most accurately [cf. 

 Stone, 'Auk,' 1891), p. 374). The question as to the limits 

 of the New Zealand Region has engaged the attention of both 

 of us, and,, after careful consideration from all aspects, we 

 confidently put forward those which have been most generally 

 accepted, viz., Kermadec Islands, North Island, South Island, 

 the Chatham Group, Stewart Island, and the subantarctic 

 Islands to the south ; these include the Snares, the Auckland 

 Islands, Antipodes, Bounty, Campbell and Macquarie Islands. 



We have not included Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, 

 and have already, individually, put forward our arguments 

 against such inclusion, and we have a full paper in preparation 

 detailing all the facts in support of our views. In that paper 

 much new and interesting information will be utilised. 



As BuUer's ' Supplement' contains all the Birds of the New 

 Zealand Region and is the latest authority on the subject, we 

 have given a reference to that work so that it will be at once 

 easy to fix the bird named in this List. Almost all the New 

 Zealand birds have been figured in the various editions of 

 Buller's 'Birds of New Zealand,' so that this List is mainly 

 critical and should be used in connection with that work. 



