134 Transactions. —Zoology. 
[Dr. Finsch is probably right in distinguishing a second species (Ocydromus 
troglodytes). I have myself stated (“Birds of New Zealand,” p. 171) that 
“examples from different localities exhibit so much variety in size and 
plumage as to suggest the existence of another closely-allied species.” 
* CHARADRIUS FULVUS. _ 
_ “ Dr. Buller states that this bird ‘occurs occasionally on the New Zealand 
coast; but as both Mr. Gould and Dr. Jerdon state that it resembles in habits 
the Golden Plover of Europe, this is very unlikely to be the case. He also 
makes no mention of the only specimen contained in any New Zealand 
collection, viz, that in the Auckland Museum, which was presented by 
Dr. Buller himself, but without any mention of the locality." 
[Captain Hutton is under a wrong impression as to my having presented 
the specimen of C. fulvus which exists in the Auckland Museum. It was 
there as far back as 1855 ; and, beyond the assurance of the curator that it 
was a New Zealand TUE I know nothing whatever about it. The 
species (according to Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub) is distributed over the islands 
of the South Pacific, and there is nothing unlikely in its occurrence in New 
Zealand.] 
* ANARHYNCHUS FRONTALIS. 
“Т cannot follow Mr. Potts and Dr. Buller in thinking that the bent bill 
of this bird is useful in enabling it *to follow up retreating insects by making 
the circuit of а water-worn stone with far greater ease than if it had been 
furnished with a straight beak.’ In the first place, unless the bird is also 
furnished with some means of seeing round a corner, it would not be able to 
see the insect it wanted to catch ; in the second place, the bird is just as 
common in the sandy bed of the Waikato, and on the mud-flats of the 
Manukau harbour, where there are no stones, as it is in the shingle-beds of 
the rivers of the South Island ; and, in the third place, I have often watched 
the bird feeding and never yet saw it run round a stone more than any other 
bird might do. 
* [t seems to me that a bill bent on one side would be very useful to a bird 
whose usual food was either minute but numerous organisms, such as Diato- 
macez, etc., or small animals hidden among fine Algæ, etc. ; for by slightly 
inclining its head it could lay a considerable part of its bill flat on the ground, 
and thus, in the first case, take up a much larger quantity of those minute 
organisms at a time, or, in the latter, could search over a greater extent of 
Alge for creatures that it could not see, than if it used only the point of the 
bil. The broad bill of the duck performs the same office in a different 
manner. I by no means assert, however, that this is the use of the peculiar 
shape of the bill; for T have had no opportunity of observing one through а 
