834 Transactions.—Z oology. 
Anous stolidus. 
Dr. Finsch and myself concurred in omitting the Noddy Tern from 
the New Zealand list, in the absence of more positive evidence of its 
occurrence in our seas. I think it is probable, however, that we shall 
have in the end to restore it. There is a specimen in the Canter- 
terbury Museum, shot by Mr. Minerzhagen, near the Sandwich Islands. 
The forehead and vertex in a line with the eyes is white, passing into grey 
on the crown, and shading into the sooty colour which prevails all over the 
body ; quills and tail-feathers black. 
Procellaria cookii. 
I am indebted to Mr. C. H. Robson for a very perfect specimen of this 
Petrel obtained by him at Cape Campbell. 
Thalassidroma nereis. 
I have lately received several fine specimens of this diminutive Petrel 
from Cape Campbell. 
Diomedea exulans. 
In a paper which I had the honour of reading before this Society in 
January last, I described a perfectly mature example of the Wandering 
Albatros, presenting a. feature which appeared to me quite a new fact in 
natural history. It has since been noticed by Dr. Kidder * in the following 
terms :—'' All of the nesting Albatroses that I saw, without exception, 
showed a slight pinkish discolouration of the neck, as if a blood-stain had 
been washed out (usually on the left side), and extending downward from 
the region of the ear." 
I find, however, that I was not the first to record this peculiarity 
of colouration. Captain Hutton, in his ** Notes on the Petrels of the Southern 
Ocean," mentions “ a rose-coloured streak on each side of the neck,’’ and 
adds, *I have never seen this on either the young or very old birds; and 
the only one I ever captured with it was a male. I have also only seen 
these marks between June and August, and I am therefore disposed to 
believe that they distinguish the middle-aged male bird previous to the 
breeding season ; but I am not sure of this." 
Mr. Hood, a Wharekauri settler, informs me that the Chatham Island 
Natives periodically visit two groups of small islands—the Sisters and the 
Forty, for the purpose of collecting young birds. In August last year, he 
saw the boats return with seven hundred young Albatroses. The Natives 
had caught them on the nest and wrung their necks. After this they were 
tried down in their own fat and potted for future use. 
_* * Birds of Kerguelen Island,” p. 20. 
1 Read before Natural History Society of Dublin, March 9rd, 1865. 
