Buller. — On the Ornithology of New Zealand. 203 



species corresponds with a "specimen given to me by the Rev. R. Taylor many 

 years ago, and declared by the Maoris to belong to this bird. This specimen 

 was afterwards presented by me to the Colonial Museum at Wellington, and a 

 description of it may be found at page 76 of the Birds of New Zealand. 



Anthorxis melanura, Sparrm. — Bell-bird. 



On the 10th October a partial albino was brought to the Canterbury 

 Museum, and I had an opportunity of examining it in the flesh. Although I 

 have seen probably some thousands of this species, this is the only instance I 

 can remember of any departure from the normal colour, unless it be an 

 occasional very slight tendency to melanism. 



It is a fine male bird, with the body plumage as in ordinary specimens, 

 but having the whole of the quills and tail-feathers ashy white, the edges of 

 the outer webs slightly tinged with yellow. The shafts of the quills are dark 

 brown, those of the tail-feathers white in their greater portion, becoming brown 

 towards the base. The bastard quills and tertiary coverts are ashy white; the 

 large secondary coverts dark grey tipped with whitish and margined with dull 

 olive ; the axillary tufts, lower part of abdomen, flanks and under tail-coverts 

 pale lemon yellow. Irides, bill, and feet as in ordinary specimens. 



There is a fine living example of this bird (an adult male) in the aviary 

 of the Zoological Society of London. It shares a large cage with several 

 foreign birds at the further end of the Parrot-house, and seems perfectly 

 happy in its new home. It is incessantly on the move, springing upwards 

 from its perch and turning a half somersault in the air, but I never heard it 

 utter a sound. The deafening screams of the macaws and other parrots in 

 its neighbourhood may have something to do with this. It seems strange that 

 a bird which it is almost impossible to cage successfully in its native country 

 should have found its way, by accident as it were, into the " Gardens " on the 

 other side of the world. The curator informed me that he had purchased it 

 for a mere trifle from a seaman at one of the London docks. 



Further inquiries have only tended to confirm my belief that the present 

 scarcity of this and some other other species in the North Island is due to the 

 ravages of the introduced rat (Mus decumanus), which now swarms throughout 

 the country and will continue probably to increase. F. von Fischer calculates 

 that a single pair of these rats might have, after ten years, a progeny of 

 48,319,098,843,030,344,720 individuals (Zool Gard., 1872, p. 125.) 



Orthonyx ochrocephala, Gray and Mitch. — Yellow-head. 



"Writing of Orthonyx albicilla y in 1871,* Mr Potts says that " its habits so 

 closely resemble those of Mohoua ochrocephala, that one sees with regret that 

 ornithologists have lately seen fit to class it with another group." In his last 



* Trans. N. Z. Institute, III., p. 74. 



