216 Letters, Notes and Extracts. 
bones, some quite old. But al/ of them had the sexual 
organs quite irregularly developed—not quite masculine nor 
feminine, yet not clearly hermaphroditic, so that they might 
be called asexual specimens. 
Mr. Lorenz adds that such anomalous specimens were 
considered by Dr. A. B. Meyer to be hybrids between 7etrao 
urogallus (male) and Lyrurus tetrix (female); but Mr. Lorenz 
denies that such hybrids exist, and thinks that Dr. Meyer 
made an erroneous conjecture, not having examined the 
state of the sexual organs of his specimens. 
Perhaps you will find these remarks sufficiently interesting 
for your readers. 
Yours &c., 
S. A. Bururzin. 
Wesenberg, Esthonia, Russia, 
October 13th, 1906. 
Sirs,—During this winter | am camping out in one of the 
largest areas of untouched forest-land that still remain in 
New Zealand. Unfortunately for its birds a great slice of 
3000 acres is being felled by the owner this season, and I am 
engaged in superintending the felling. 
The altitude is from 2000 to 3000 feet, and the position is 
in the middle portion of the eastern extension of the North 
Island which ends in East Cape, and is some fifty miles 
from the coast. I may say that other owners in the locality 
are felling trees, and next year I expect that a still larger 
area will go down. This will seriously affect the feathered 
inhabitants, and I have taken notes of the birds that I have 
observed here. 
My daily visits to different gangs of men bring me m 
touch with many of our rarest birds. Miro australis and 
Clitonyex albicilla greet me almost every day, as does the 
Bell-bird (Anthornis melanura). The Parrot family are 
exceedingly abundant and Glaucopis is quite common. 
About our scrap-heap at the galley-door the Rifleman 
(Acanthidositta chloris or A. citrina?) hunts for food, and 
its “chit ?’-like call (which resembles that of an insect rather 
