194 Transactions.— Zoology. 
And, again, in his review of my ‘‘ Birds of New Zealand,” in the “ New 
Zealand Magazine,” p. 99, Captain Hutton says :—‘* We must take excep- 
tion to the Kiwi being considered as the living representative of the Moa, or as 
Dr. Buller puts it in his preface, ‘the only living representative of an extinct 
race.’ No doubt the Kiwi and the Moa have several features in common : 
but it is certain that both the Emu and the Cassowary are far more nearly 
related to the Moa than is the Kiwi.” It will be interesting to the meeting 
to learn that Professor Mivart has recently read a paper before the Zoological 
Society of London, on the axial skeleton of the Struthionide, which effee- 
tually settles the question at issue. The learned professor pointed out that, 
judging by the characters of the axial skeleton, the Emu presents the least 
differential type, from which Rhea diverges most on the one hand, and 
Apteryx on the other ; that the resemblance between Dromaus and Casuarinus : 
is exceedingly close, while the axial skeleton’ of Dinornis is intermediate 4 
between that of Casuarinus and Apteryx ; its affinities, however, with the 
existing New Zealand form very decidedly predominating. 
It will be seen, therefore, that I was fully justified in referring to the 
existing species of Apteryx, as “the diminutive representatives of colossal 
ornithic types that have disfippeared.” 
Ant. XXI.—Remarks on Dr. Finsch’s Paper on New Zealand Ornithology. a 
By Water L. Buutzr, 0.M.G., D.Se. 
(Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, August 7, 1875.} 
I nave read with interest Dr. Otto Finsch’s valuable contribution to the 
last volume of the ‘“ Transactions,” (pp. 226-236,) which is merely a pre- 
cursor of his promised Synopsis of the Birds of New Zealand,” and I find 
we are still at issue on several points :— ; 
1. Stringops greyi is undoubtedly a mere variety of 8. habroptilus. It is 4 
no more entitled to recognition as a species than the handsomely 
marked specimen in Brogden’s Collection, of which I have 
recorded a description. (Trans. N. Z. Inst.,”” Vol. VIL., p. 
201. 
2. I do not believe in the existence of Acanthisitta citrina, Gmelin. 
The plumage of A. chloris differs in the male, female, and 
young. 
8. I entirely dissent from Dr. Finsch’s present view that the so-called 
Orthonyz albicilla and O, ochrocephala, of the North and South 
Islands respectively, belong to « totally different families.” In 
one of his earlier articles (Journ. fiir Orn.,” July, 1870), he 
