BULLER.—Replies to Hutton’s Notes. 127 
endorse all my views. Besides, as I have explained in my preface, our present 
knowledge of many of the rarer species is confessedly imperfect, while in 
regard to all of them some new fact is being constantly added to the general 
stock of information. Тһе notes and corrections of impartial observers in New 
Zealand will be very valuable to me, as they will assist in making a future 
edition of my work more exhaustive and complete. The first contribution of 
this kind is Captain Hutton’s paper, which appeared in the last number of 
“ The Ibis" But, in attempting to correct my inaccuracies, Captain Hutton 
appears to have fallen into many errors himself. ] 
* SCELOGLAUX ALBIFACIES. 
“I cannot agree with Dr. Buller’s remark that ‘the extinction of the 
native rat has been followed by the almost total disappearance of this singular 
Ыга? nor with the conclusion that he draws from it; for I have elsewhere 
pointed out (Trans. N. Z. Inst. V., p. 230) that there is no evidence that an 
indigenous rat ever existed in this country ; and supposing even that there 
had been a ‘native rat, it could only have been exterminated by other rats 
and mice taking its place. There is also no evidence to show that the Laughing 
Owl was formerly ‘more plentiful than it now is,’ or that it has now almost 
totally disappeared. During a short tour of six weeks through the Nelson 
Province last summer, I twice heard it, once at Fox Hill, and again on the 
river Conway. 
* Besides its laugh it has a peculiar note, like two branches of a tree rubbing 
together, repeated twice over at considerable intervals. 
* Its laugh is very different from that of the bird that I heard on the Little 
Barrier Island (Trans. N.Z. Inst. L, p. 162), which I think must be of 
another species." 
[Capt. Hutton states that there is no evidence to show that tbe Laughing 
Owl was formerly more plentiful than it now is, or that it has almost totally 
disappeared. Of the former fact I have abundant evidence in the accounts 
given by the Maoris. As to its present scarcity, it may be sufficient to state 
that I have never heard of more than a dozen specimens, and have never seen 
but one living example. Capt. Hutton does not state that he has ever met 
with the bird outside of a museum; and the peculiar sound, *like two 
branches of a tree rubbing together," which he has so often heard in the 
forest, may, I think, be accounted for in a very simple manner. | 
*« STRINGOPS HABROPTILUS. | 
“Dr. Buller’s mistake in supposing that the superficial analogy of the 
facial disk of this bird to that of an Owl, as well as the softness of its plumage 
and its nocturnal habits, seem *to prove that it supplies in the grand scheme 
of nature the connecting link between the Owls and Parrots,’ has been already - 
