218 Essays. 
in this country, possessing only few representatives of the family, the species 
have been very much confused by naturalists. Dr. Latham, in his “ General 
Synopsis of Birds,” figured the Milvago leucurus (an American bird) under 
the name of New Zealand falcon, and subsequent authors copied the 
mistake. Darwin, in his “ Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle," (1841,) 
on the authority of Mr. G. R. Gray, of the British Museum, rectified 
Latham’s error, and Mr. Gray, in his “ List of Birds,” (1842,) appended to 
Dieffenbach's “ New Zealand,” classed together Gmelin’s Falco nove-zealandie 
and Forster's Falco harpe under the former title, considering this bird the 
‘kahu of the natives, while he referred karearea to the species characterized 
by Mr. Gould (Trans. Zool. Soc., 1837) under the name of Falco brunnea. 
This naturalist afterwards, in his “Birds of New Zealand,” (Voyage 
of Erebus and Terror,) reduced these names to synonyms, retaining as 
specific Falco nove-zealandie; and again, more recently in his synopsis 
(Ibis, July, 1862), he has recognized two distinct species under the new 
generic term of Hieracidea. 
Owing to a misapplication of the native names kahu and karearea, in 
Mr. Gray’s first list, writers in this country have invariably fallen into the 
error of considering our large brown hawk the Falco harpe, and our sparrow- 
hawk the Falco brunnea, of that author. 
There is reason to believe that, when we become better acquainted with 
the history of these hawks, it will be found necessary to expunge H. brunnea 
from our list of species, and to regard it merely as H. nove-zealandie in an 
immature state of plumage. On the other hand, future exploration of the 
interior, and especially of the remote alpine regions of the South Island, will 
doubtless add some new forms to this portion of our ornithology ; for 
whereas the neighbouring continent of Australia possesses nearly thirty 
members of the family, we can enumerate at present only three— Zieracidea 
nove-zealandie, H. brunnea, and Circus gouldi. 
The bird described as Falco aurioculus, or kahukorako, is the. last- 
named species in the hoary plumage of extreme age. 
Fam. Srrierpx.—Of the genus Athene we possess in this country at 
least two representatives, Athene nove-zealandie and Athene albifacies, the 
latter being confined in its range to the most southern parts of the South 
Island. 
There is evidence also of the existence of another owl, of much larger 
size, and an inhabitant of the sub-alpine parts of the Canterbury Province. It 
probably belongs to the restricted genus Siris, in which the ornithology of 
Australia is so peculiarly rich. It is described by Dr. Haast as being as 
large as the Circus gouldi, and “ of dark brown plumage ;” and in the notice 
of its discovery communicated to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 
