228 Essays. 
A spoon-bill is recorded by Mr.- Ellman as having been seen at Castle 
Point (North Island). This was probably a straggler from Australia, being 
either Platalea flavipes or P. regia. 
Fam. Sconopactpa.—Of the genus Himantopus, New Zealand, like 
Australia, is inhabited by a single species, known as the stilt plover (H. 
nove-zealandi@). It is a handsome bird, and, notwithstanding the extreme 
length and apparent disproportion of its legs, all its movements are easy and 
graceful. The range of this plover does not extend further north than the 
Upper Waikato. 
The bird described by Mr. Gray as the male of this species will probably 
prove to be distinct. The other recorded species are— Limosa nove-zealandia, 
Cenocorypha aucklandica, and Recurvirostra (?) rubricollis. 
Fam. Rartınæ.—The rails of New Zealand constitute a prominent and 
peculiar feature in its ornithology. They embrace members of six different 
genera, each of which deserves separate notice. 
Professor Owen had already determined the characters of the presumed 
extinct genus Wotornis, when the discovery of a living example, by a party 
of sealers in Dusky Bay, while it established the soundness of his physio- 
logical inferences, furnished another proof of the comparatively recent 
existence of the moa and its kindred. Only two specimens of this bird have 
been obtained, both of which are now deposited in the British Museum. 
They were forwarded to Europe by Walter Mantell, Esq., of Wellington, in 
compliment to whom Professor Owen named the species Notornis mantelli. 
(Trans. Z.S. ILL, p. 337.) 
Another genus of brevi-pennate rails (Ocydromus) is represented by 
three species, in all of which the anterior extremities are so feebly 
developed as to be utterly powerless for flight. The Ocydromus australis 
is excessively abundant in the South, and the Ocydromus earli is still 
common in the southern parts of the North Island; but the third species, 
O. brachypterus, is extremely rare, if not already extinct, in all the settled 
districts. 
Our only member of the new genus Hypotenidia is the moeriki (4H. 
dieffenbachii), an extremely beautiful rail, restricted in its range to the 
‘Chatham Islands. Mr. Gray has given an excellent figure of this bird in 
the Voyage of H.M.SS. “Erebus” and “Terror.” This species is also fast 
disappearing from our fauna. It was sought for in vain during a visit to the 
Chathams nearly ten years ago, and the natives described it then as the 
rarest of their birds. z 
Our representative member of the restricted genus Rallus (R. assimilis) 
resembles closely an Australian species, but is distinguishable by the pectoral 
