BuLLER.—Zeplies to Hutton’s Notes. 131 
[Captain Hutton is in error in stating that the specimens of Xenicus 
longipes in my collection (Colonial Museum) were wrongly determined. There 
is no such species as Xenicus stokesii. The explanation of the strikingly 
incorrect figure of X. longipes in the “ Voyage of the Erebus and Terror" will 
be found at page 116 of my “Birds of New Zealand.” I may mention that, 
in company with the late Mr. G. R. Gray, I examined Foster’s original 
(unfinished) drawing of this bird, in which the bill is depicted as straight, and 
the eye-circlet almost wanting. Mr. Gray told me that his artist was 
responsible for the alterations in the published figure (which represents a bird 
with an upturned bill, like Acanthisitta), and that his own description of the 
species (* Voy. Ereb. and Terr.,” p. 4) was taken from the latter! After we 
had thus sifted the matter and compared specimens, Mr. Gray readily 
admitted that his Xenicus stokesii (“ Ibis," 1862, p. 219) would not stand.] 
* GERYGONE FLAVIVENTRIS. 
* In the figure given of this bird the breast is white, whereas it should be 
grey; while in the description of G. albofrontata the breast is described as 
grey when it should have been white. 
“I was in error in saying that this bird never uses spiders' nests in the 
construction of its nest. Dr. Powell informs me that the green spider's nest 
made use of is that of Epeira verrucosa. It is remarkable that G. albofrontata 
in the Chatham Islands uses the very same species of spider’s nest as 
G. flaviventris, and neither ever employs the orange-coloured nest of Epeira 
antipodiana.” 
[The fact that this species uses spiders’ nests in the construction of its own 
nest was first mentioned by me in 1870 (Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. III., p. 41), 
and was contradicted by Captain Hutton, in his usual emphatic manner, in 
the Critical Notes appended to his * Catalogue." "There is nothing unaccount- 
able, as it seems to me, in the use of the green-coloured nests of Zpeira 
verrucosa and the rejection of the orange-coloured nests of Z. antipodiana. It 
is easily explained on the principle of assimilative or protective colouring. My 
description of Gerygone albofrontata is from the type specimen in the British 
Museum.] 
* MIRO TRAVERSI. 
“Т am not aware that I ever suggested to Dr. Buller that he should call 
this bird after Mr. H. Travers. The facts of the case are these:— When 
Mr. Travers' collection of Chatham Island birds arrived at the Museum, 
Dr. Hector handed it over to me, with instructions to make a list of them, 
describe the new species, and pick out a set of the novelties to send to 
Dr. Buller. This I did, and described the bird as Petroica traversi ; and, with 
Dr. Hector's consent, the list was sent for publication in “The Ibis' (* Ibis," 
