814 Transactions.—Zoology. 
CREADION CINEREUS, Buller. 
In the “ Essay,” to which I have already referred, I characterized and 
named what appeared to me then a new species of Creadion in the following 
terms :— This species is of the size and general form of C. carunculatus 
to which it bears a close affinity, but the colouring of the plumage is alto- 
gether different. The common species (the ‘ Saddleback’) is of a deep 
uniform black, relieved by a band of rufous brown which occupies the 
whole of the back, and, forming a sharp outline across the shoulders, 
sweeps over the wing coverts in a broad curve. In the present bird, how- 
ever, the plumage is of a dark cinereous brown, paler on the under parts 
and tinted with umber on the wings and scapularies; the upper and lower 
tail coverts, and a few spots on the smaller wing coverts, bright rufous. 
The wattles are of the same colour and deer as in Creadion carunculatus but 
somewhat smaller.” 
My new species was at once Buses» attacked by Dr. Otto Finsch and 
Captain Hutton, both of whom declared it to be the young of Creadion 
carunculatus. In his paper which appeared in volume v. of our Transac- 
tions (p. 208), Dr. Finsch expressed his satisfaction that Captain Hutton's 
* examination of the types” had ** shown C. cinereus to be undoubtedly the 
young of the above-named species.” 
In my reply, which appeared in vol. vi, p. 116, I explained that an 
examination of a fine series of specimens in the Canterbury Museum, show- 
ing what appeared to be transitional changes of plumage, had forced me to 
this conclusion, and that I had communicated the result to Captain Hutton 
long before the appearance of his catalogue. The deseriptive notes which I 
made at the time of this examination will be found at page 149 of my 
* Birds of New Zealand.” I was careful, nevertheless, to add the following 
qualifying passages :— 
** I confess, however, that the subject is still beset with some difficulty 
in my own mind. Supposing the plumage of C. cinereus to be the first 
year's dress of C. carunculatus, it seems to me quite inexplicable that the 
bird has never been met with in that state in the North Island. Captain 
Hutton suggests that this is due to the comparative scarcity of the species 
at the North. But during several years’ residence in the Province of 
Wellington I obtained probably upwards of fifty specimens, at various times, 
without ever detecting any sign of this immature condition of plumage. 
« Admitting the comparative scarcity of the species, one would naturally 
suppose that the younger birds would be more likely to fall into the collec- 
tor’s hands than the fully adult ones. It may be suggested whether the 
condition of the Canterbury Museum specimens has not possibly resulted 
from intercrossing ; for we have not heard of any further examples (of the 
