318 T'ransactions.— Zoology. 
PraTYvcERCUS ALPINUS, Buller. 
Mr. Reischek met with this little parakeet in the serub on the summit 
of Mount Alexander (above Lake Brunner on the West Coast); and he met 
with the species again on the Hen, where he shot two, and on the Little 
Barrier, where he observed another pair, and killed the male. - 
While on this subject I may be permitted to refer to a passage in the 
paper read by Mr. Travers last year, “On the Distribution of New Zealand 
Birds.”* He explains that, in making his analysis of genera and species, he 
has “ assumed that Dr. Buller has seen good reasons for reaffirming Platy- 
cercus alpinus as a species in the Manual, notwithstanding the remarks on 
the subject in his larger work.” 
It is true that I yielded to the arguments of Dr. Finsch and agreed to 
sink my Platycercus alpinus, as a species, and treated it in the text of my work 
as the young of Platycercus auriceps. In the Introduction, however, to the 
| book, I gave my reasons for reinstating this form. I there explained that 
more than twenty living examples of this bird had recently been brought 
to England ; that it was to be seen alive in the Gardens of the Zoological 
Society of London; and that the validity of the species had thus been 
established beyond all doubt. 
CHARADRIUS FULVUS, 
In April, 1881, Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, the Curator of the Auckland 
Museum, wrote informing me that he had obtained two specimens (male 
and female) of the Golden Plover, both shot on the Manukau Harbour ; 
and he afterwards made an interesting communication on the subject to the 
Auckland Institute (Trans. N.Z, Inst., vol. xiv., p. 264), 
Of this rare visitant, Mr. C. H. Robson, with his usual activity in the 
cause of science, has obtained and forwarded to me a fine pair from Port- 
land Island. I take this opportunity of exhibiting them, and also of com- 
municating to the society some notes on this bird by my correspondent who 
was fortunate enough to discover its breeding place and to obtain its eggs. 
Arr. XXIV.—On Hieracidea nove-zealandiw, and H. brunnea. By W. 
W. Surrg. Communicated by Dr. Buller, C.M.G., F.R.S. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 31st October, 1883.] 
Ix the summer and autumn of 1876 I shot several specimens of ** Sparrow 
Hawk,” varying so much in size that I was often surprised at the extraor- 
dinary difference in the specimens I obtained. Taking as I did at the time 
* See Trans. N.Z. Inst., xv., art. xiv, 
* 
