368 Transactions. — Zoology. 
Circus couLpt, Bonap., N.Z. Harrier. 
It is worth recording that the Harrier will sometimes pursue on the 
wing. Riding along the road near the Whenuakura river, I observed a 
kahu pursuing a small bird (apparently a ground lark) high in the air. The 
pursuit was continued for a eonsiderable time, the hawk making frequent 
swoops and the small bird eluding its grasp by suddenly altering its course, 
and thus gaining on its pursuer. When nearly out of sight the hawk was 
joined by another, both in pursuit of the same bird, from which circum- 
stance I conclude that the raptor was foraging for hungry ones at home. 
This might account for the eagerness of the pursuit, and for a mode of 
chase which I have never observed before during a very long acquaintance 
with this species. 
Puatycercus RoWLEYI, Buller, Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. VIL, p. 220. 
So many specimens of this small form have been obtained in the South 
lsland (whereas it never oecurs in the North) that I think it may safely be 
admitted into the list of true and accepted species. 
I have been looking over my notes on the series of this group in the 
British Museum, and I find that there is an appreciable difference in size 
between my bird and the type of Gray's Platycercus aucklandicus, which is, 
I believe, only a small example of P. nove-zealandie. 
As the notes to which I have referred may be useful for reference, I have 
transcribed them from my pocket diary. 
British Museum Collection.—My examination of the types gives the 
following results :—Platycercus aucklandicus not distinguishable from P. 
nove-zealandie, but smaller than ordinary examples; beak decidedly smaller, 
being of same size as in P. auriceps, but lighter at the base; ear-spots 
indistinct; frontal spot less extensive, but of same colour as in P. nove- 
sealandie. P. malherbii = P. auriceps, but smaller than average specimens 
of the latter. P. pacificus similar to P. nove-zealandie but much larger, 
with a more robust bill P. erythrotis, from Macquarie Islands, — P. 
pacificus, but with lighter plumage. P. forsteri — P. nove-zealandia, with 
the thigh-spots accidentally absent. There is another specimen marked 
‘* Platycercus forsteri,” to which I shall refer again presently, in very 
different plumage. P. cookii = P. pacificus. P. unicolor, a much larger 
and very distinct species. (See my remarks in Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. VI., 
p. 121). P. rayneri, from Norfolk Island, is like P. pacificus, but larger and 
with a more powerful bill; the frontal spot is more extensive but lighter in 
colour; ear-spot small and obscure as compared with P. nove-zealandiea. I 
think we may pretty safely conclude that P. rayneri is in reality P. pacificus, 
although the British Museum specimen is both larger and lighter coloured 
than ordinary specimens of the latter, Platycercus ulietanus, from the Society 
