66 Transactions, 
the Polynesian Islands, northwards to Siberia and Kamschatka, where it 
rears its young. (See Hartl. and Finsch, “ Ornith. of Central Polynesia,” 
p. 196.) Hematopus wnicolor is found also in Australia, according to 
Schlegel. 
Fam. ArpErx.—The white crane (Ardea flavirostris, Wagl.) is by no 
means restricted to New Zealand, but spreads itself over Australia as far as 
Java and the Philippines. It is identical with A. intermedia, Wagl., and 
Herodias plumifera, Gould. 
Ardea matook (sacra, Gml.; jugularis, Forst.) has a still more diuna 
range. (See “ Ornith. Cent. Polyn,,” p. 205.) The remarkable variety in 
eolour (white and slate-coloured), and the important difference in size, were 
the reasons why the species has been described so often under various 
names (18 
Botaurus poicilopterus is found also in Tasmania and Australia (19). 
Fam. ScoroPAcrpa.—The various grades of colour in Himantopus nove- 
zealandi@ are found in one and the same species, attributable either to age or 
the time of year. A beautiful change of plumage in a specimen in the 
Bremen Museum, where the white parts beneath are still mingled with 
black feathers, leaves this beyond a doubt. 
Limosa nove-zealandie, Gray (uropygialis, Gould; baueri, Natt.)," is 
the eastern representative of our L. rufa, Briss. (lapponica, Linn.) It only 
visits these southern lands on its winter wanderings, since it breeds in high 
latitudes of Eastern Asia. (See “ Ornith. Cent. Polyn.,” p.177), (20). 
- Fam. Rarnrpz.— Concerning the existence of JVotornis mantelli, Mr. D. 
Mackay has recently contributed some very interesting details in the “ Ibis,” 
1867, p. 144. The bird is still living in considerable numbers in some 
districts on the west coast of the Middle Island of New Zealand. Those 
parts were first explored by the miners, after the discovery of the gold fields 
in 1865, who often lived for days together on the flesh of what they called 
“ground parrots,” or the Wotornis mantelli. Since the bird is so very 
helpless, and can be caught so easily by men and dogs, it appears certain 
that within a short time the number will have greatly diminished, if not 
died out altogether. 
I may add, by the way, that Gallinula alba, Latham, from Norfolk 
Island, the original specimen of which I have lately examined in the Vienna 
Museum, belongs much more to the genus Notornis than to Porphyrio, 
as has lately been determined by Pelzeln (“ Trans. Impl. Acad.,” 1860, 
P- we Q1). 
Our knowledge of the genus Orgdroma in til very imporioct; more- 
of its species has not yet e TEOR OR 
mow so little of its change of plumage through age 
LU 
