NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 95 



Gallinago pusilla, Buller, we perceive, still figures (p. 59) as 

 specifically distinct from G. aucklandica, although, upon an 

 examination of the type-specimen some years ago and a comparison 

 with several examples of aucklandica, we failed to detect any 

 difference, except in point of size, pusilla, as its name would 

 suggest, being slightly smaller, a circumstance by itself inadequate, 

 in our opinion, to warrant specific separation. If new species 

 are to be founded in this way merely on a difference of size in 

 individual examples, there will indeed be no limit to " species- 

 making ! " 



We are at a loss to understand why Tringa acuminata, Hors- 

 field, or, as Mr. Buller has it (p. 55), " Limnocinclus acuminatus, 

 Horsf.," should be separated from Tringa by the interposition of 

 the genera Numenius, Becurvirostra, and Himantopus. Nor do 

 we see any reason why the specific name baueri should be retained 

 for the New Zealand Godwit, since that was merely a " museum- 

 name " bestowed by Natterer (not Naumann, as Mr. Buller has 

 it), and no description was published of the bird to which it was 

 applied. 



This leads us to remark that it would have been well if Mr. 

 Buller had printed after each specific name adopted by him 

 a reference to the original description, a course which would have 

 added little to the cost of printing, and would have saved the 

 reader a good deal of trouble. Let us hope that should another 

 edition be called for, as we trust it may, these and other useful 

 emendations will be made. 



Out in the Open: a Budget of Scraps of Natural History 

 gathered in Neiv Zealand. By T. H. Potts. 8vo, pp. 

 301. With illustrations. Printed by the Lyttelton Times 

 Company, Limited, Gloucester Street, Christchurch, N.Z. 

 1882. 



Under this title the author has reprinted a number of articles 

 contributed by him to ' The New Zealand Country Journal,' with 

 a few revised papers read before the Philosophical Societies of 

 Wellington and Canterbury. 



Many of our readers probably do not see the ' Transactions of 

 the New Zealand Institute ' and other colonial journals in which 



