BvrrEn.—On the Ornithology of New Zealand. 333 
Numenius cyanopus. 
Dr. von Haast writes to me that two specimens of a Whimbrel, which 
he refers to this species, have recently been added to the New Zealand 
collection in the Canterbury Museum. One of these was obtained on the 
2nd of April last on the Kaiapoi Bar, where it was consorting with a flock 
of Godwits ; and the other was shot on the 27th June, at the mouth of the 
Ashley River. Both of these proved on examination to be males. 
The breeding-ground of this species has not yet been discovered, but the 
birdis very abundant on the shores of Tasmania, and there is reason to 
believe that it retires to the high lands of the interior for the purpose of 
reproducing. Its range extends, however, all over Australia, and it is just 
one of those species that might reasonably be looked for as stragglers on 
our coasts, 
It will be remembered that in the course of a paper which I read before 
this Society in February, 1875, describing several ornithological novelties in 
the Colonial Museum, I mentioned, on the authority of Dr. Hector (through 
whose hands the specimens had passed) that an example of this species was 
shot by Liardet in the Wairau district. Curiously enough, the bird was in 
company with another straggler from Australia, Numenius uropygialis, a 
notice of which will be found in the paper referred to.* 
Himantopus leucocephalus. 
The following is the description of a young bird of this species shot by 
my son on a mud-bank in the Wanganui River on the 25th March :—Crown 
of the head, nape, and hind-neck dusky black mottled with white ; shoulders 
spotted with black, darkening towards the back; upper part of back and 
scapulars brownish-black ; upper surface of wings glossy black ; the median 
coverts, as well as the feathers of the back, narrowly tipped with brown; 
lower part of back and rump white; tail feathers dull black, tipped with 
brown, their coverts (which are very fluffy) plumbeous at the base, white 
in their apieal portion, and tipped with yellowish-brown: lining of wings 
black; bill black, brownish towards the base; irides reddish-yellow ; legs 
pale yellow; the claws brown ; upper mandible, 2 inches; tibia, 1:75 ; 
tarsus, 2°75. 
Tringa canutus. 
A beautiful specimen of this bird in full summer plumage, shot in the 
vicinity of Christchurch on the 2nd April, and preserved in that Museum, 
presents the following measurements :—Extreme length, 9 inches; wing 
from flexure, 6-4 inches; tail, 2°25 inches; bill, along the ridge, 1.15 
inches, along the edge of lower mandible, 1:15 inches; bare tibia, *55 inch ; 
tarsus, 1:15 inches ; middle toe and claw, 1:15 inches ; hallux, :25 inch. 
* * Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. VIL, p. 225. 
