126 Transactions —Zoology. 
a time in the Otago Acclimatization Society’s Gardens, and that (as is too ' 
. often the case) a wilful deception was practised by the dealer for the sake of 
obtaining a higher price. 
The bird in question was purchased from Mr. Bills by the Zoological 
Society as a New Zealand bird, and I received a letter from Dr. Sclater 
apprising me of the fact, and kindly placing it at my. service. Mr. Bills, 
whom I saw personally on the subject, declared that it had been obtained on 
the shores of Lake Waihora, in the interior of the Otago Province, and gave 
me a circumstantial account of its capture! As there was nothing improbable 
in the occurrence of such a form in New Zealand, or rather (as I have pointed 
out in my Introduction, p. xviii.) as such a form might naturally be looked for 
there, I did not, of course, discredit the story, and was only too glad to accept 
Dr. Sclater’s offer to make use of the Society’s wood-cut in my notice of the 
species, 
Авт. XXIX.— Notes by Captain Hutton on Dr. Buller’s “ Birds of New 
Zealand," with the Author's Replies thereto.* 
[Received by the Wellington Philosophical Society, March, 1874.}+ 
“ ALTHOUGH fully recognizing the value to ornithologists of Dr. Buller’s 
handsome work on the birds of New Zealand, especially in his determination 
of T'hinornis rossii as the young of 7. novc-zealandie, and in his identification 
of Gallinago pusilla with G. aucklandica, I wish to point out what I consider 
to be certain inaccuracies that I have noticed in it, and also to record my 
dissent from some of the opinions expressed therein. 
“I have in these notes followed Dr. Buller's nomenclature, but I do not 
agree with it in all cases." 7 
[When I undertook to write a “ History” of the birds of New Zealand, 
I was not insensible to the difficulties of the task. The field was a compara- 
tively unbroken one, and, with a few notable exceptions, the existing 
literature was confined to dry lists of names and characters of species. In the 
preparation of my work I had, therefore, to rely mainly on the results of my 
own observations, extending over a period of many years. At the same time, 
I freely availed myself of the assistance of Mr. Potts and other local observers, 
whose contributions were, in every instance, duly acknowledged. Having 
produced a royal quarto volume of some 400 pages, the bulk of it being purely 
original matter, it was not to be expected that my statements on every point 
would pass unchallenged, or that naturalists who think for themselves would 
* See “Тһе Ibis,” January, 1874. t Dated at London 26th December, 1873. 
