Burier.—On New Zealand Ornithology. 49 
Art. VL—Nofes on Herr Finsch’s Review* of Mr. Walter Buller's 
Essayt on New Zealand Ornithology. By the Author. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 25th August, 1868.] 
Herr Orro FrwscH has done me the honour to produce an unabridged 
German translation of my Exhibition “ Essay on the Ornithology of New 
Zealand,” and has appended thereto some valuable notes on the nomenclature 
and synonymy, together with some more precise information as to the 
geographical range of several of the species. (See “ Journal fiir Ornithologie,” 
1867, pp. 305-357.) 
In the views advanced by the learned reviewer, in treating of the New 
Zealand avifauna, I need hardly say I generally agree; but there are some 
points on which, as a local ornithologist, I feel bound to join issue with him. 
I would, first of all, observe that the reviewer does not appear exactly to 
comprehend the object or purpose for which the essay was written. He 
expresses regret that the author did not enter more fully into the natural 
history of the various species enumerated; and refers to the importance— 
which, of course, no one will deny—of original observations on the manners 
and habits of birds, &c. 
It is scarcely necessary for me to explain that in producing the essay I 
did not pretend to give an exhaustive account of the birds of New Zealand, 
or a purely scientific dissertation on the subject. The narrow limits to 
which the essay was necessarily confined, precluded the possibility of any- 
thing like a history of the species; while, on the other hand, it was the 
desire of the Exhibition Commissioners that the essayists should popularize 
their subjects as much as possible. 
From the very favourable notice which it has received from the leading 
scientific reviews, it is gratifying to find that it has proved acceptable to 
ornithologists in Europe; but the chief object of the treatise (as correctly 
stated in the notice of it in Dr. Giinther’s “Zoological Record,” 1866) was 
“ to convey to unscientific persons in the colony some idea of the peculiarities 
of the New Zealand ornis.” | 
The reviewer disapproves of my * determined adherence " to Gray's list 
of 1862. It is sufficient to say that in giving an enumeration of the recorded 
species, I availed myself of the most complete synopsis that had appeared. 
As stated in the introductory part of the essay, I considered Mr. G. R. 
* A translation of Herr Finsch’s critique on Mr. Buller’s paper has been appended for 
the information of the New Zealand readers.—Eb. 
T “ Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand,” by Walter Buller, Esq., F.L.S., Wanganui. 
(Vide post.) 
