558 T'ransactions.—Zooloqy, 
On a eomparison of these 
specimens it is perfectly 
elear that the one originally 
described by me in the 
‘Birds of New Zealand’ is 
an adult bird, and not 
* immature" as Dr. Finsch 
supposed. It is in the con- 
dition of those described 
Reduced to half the natural size. by Mr. Saunders from 
Layard's collection, “all of which were in the act of losing and renewing 
the central tail-feathers and the outer primaries, which are the last to be 
moulted." The remarkable filamentous appearance of the central rectrices 
in my first bird is shown in the second sketch (fig. 2) :— 
9 There is an ob- 
vious difference in 
p the colouration of 
ALL < J the two quasi-adult 
<S KE RK KZ OP ae specimens exhibited, 
TAS hol ml qm ; 
e rU the one having (as 
deseribed in my 
work) the breast 
greyish- white and 
the abdomen ashy- 
Reduced to half the natural size. grey, tinged with 
brown, while the other has the entire under surface white, marked on 
the breast and sides with iuterrupted bars of sooty brown. In both, 
however, the under surface of the wings and the axillary plumes are of & 
uniform dark ashy-grey. These individual differences are thus accounted 
for by Mr. Saunders in treating of S. erepidatus :—'* It is now well known 
that there are two very distinct plumages to be found in birds of this 
species, even in the same breeding-places—an entirely sooty form, and one 
with light underparts—and that white-breasted pair with whole-coloured 
birds as well as with those of their respective varieties. If this species is 
* dimorphic, the offspring of one parti-coloured and one white-coloured bird 
ought to resemble one or other of their parents without reference to sex. 
My examination of upwards of a hundred specimens from widely different 
localities, and in all stages, inclines me to the belief that this is not the case, 
and that the young of such union will be intermediate, whilst the offspring 
of two similar parents will “breed true, This point can only be solved by 
