BurLER.— Further Contributions to the Ornithology of New Zealand. 367 
I and others at present believe, or they belong to one and the same species, 
as contended for by Professor Hutton. On this point we are still waiting 
for further evidence, but unfortunately both the large and small forms are 
becoming so scarce that there are few opportunities of examining fresh 
specimens. 
Mr. Sharpe has adopted Bonaparte's genus for our bird, merely altering 
the termination for classical accuracy and making it Harpa. He has given 
a woodcut of the foot, but has not diagnosed the genus. As he has treated 
the Australian genus Hieracidea in the same manner, it may be inferred 
that the difference in the arrangement of the scutelle is the only ground 
for separating the genera. It seems to me, however, that as a distinguish- 
ing generic character this is somewhat uncertain. On comparing Mr. 
Sharpe’s figure of the foot of H. australis with that given by me in Volume 
VI. of Transactions (facing page 214), it will be seen that there is a 
considerable amount of divergence. The following very truthful woodcut 
of the head of our bird will show its close relation to the Australian form, 
familiar to us as Hieracidea berigora. 
Mr. Sharpe, at 
page 420 of his Cata- 
logue, cites Gould, 
141, for the genus 
leracidea, of which 
H. berigora is the 
recognized type. I 
have not access here 
to the early proceedings of the Zoological Society, but I find that Mr. Gould 
himself cités his Syn. Birds of Austr., part III., as the earliest authority for 
Ieracidea berigora, and the Proc. Zool. Soc., June 25, 1844, for Ieracidea 
occidentalis, 
On the subject of the systematie position of our bird, Dr. Finsch has 
the following remarks, which I have translated from the German of the 
* Journal für Ornithologie” for March, 1872:—“ Falco nova-zealandia 
must be ranged among the Tree-falcons, and follows next in order to Falco 
femoralis, having, like the latter, a long tail, which is only half covered by 
the wings. * * * Third primary longest; second shorter and somewhat 
longer than fourth ; first and fifth equal. Tarsi covered in front with ten 
sexagonal seutes in double rows. Middle toe very long, being with the claw 
nearly as long as the leg; lateral toes equal, the points of their claws 
scarcely reaching to the base of the middle-toe claw. A subgeneric dis- 
tinction appears justifiable.” 
