Buller. — On some rare Species of Neiv Zealand Birds. 313 



about the same time as the birds appeared here. I shall try to find out the 

 authority for the statement in the Kaikoura paper, and get, if possible, 

 fuller information than the newspaper paragraph gives. 



" I have since seen Mr. Cheeseman who shot the specimen I sent. He 

 tells me there were some six or seven birds in all ; that they had been 

 hanging about Grovetown for some weeks before he shot the one ; and 

 that he fancied they were young birds, or, at least, that some of them were. 

 He could not, however, say that the party consisted of a pair of old birds 

 with their brood. 



" I fear that my idea that they may have been a New Zealand tribe 

 is untenable. The occurrence of birds at Kaikoura and of the one I saw 

 in my paddocks simultaneously with those at Grovetown looks rather like a 

 ' drift ' from Australia or Tasmania, I fancy. 



" The one interesting question possibly may be why the first notice of 

 occurrence of the swallow is on our East Coast. If the ' drift ' is to and 

 through Cook Straits, I can understand it. Otherwise we should expect 

 notice of arrivals on the west coasts of both islands." 



Anthoch^ra carunculata. 



In my " Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand, 1865," I included 

 the above species among our birds, on the authority of a specimen in the 

 Auckland Museum, preserved by Mr. St. John, and said to have been 

 obtained at Matakana, to the north of Auckland. The bird was retained 

 on our lists for many years, but no fresh examples having been heard of, 

 and St. John's specimen being of doubtful authenticity, its name was ulti- 

 mately expunged. 



After a lapse of nearly twenty years, I have once more the pleasure of 

 recording it as a New Zealand bird. 



During a visit to Marton last year, I was invited by Mr. Avery, the local 

 bird-stuffer, to examine his novelties. Among these was a bird which he 

 had himself collected when serving with the volunteers in Mr. Bryce's 

 expedition against Parihaka. He met with it in some high scrub at the 

 rear of the camp at Eahotu, when on fatigue duty, and was fortunate 

 enough to shoot it. The bird was new to him and he skinned it, perform- 

 ing the operation very successfully. The skin was in a fresh condition 

 when it came into my hands, and proved on examination to be a well- 

 plumaged specimen of Anthochara carunculata, the well-known wattle-bird 

 of Australia. 



Mr. Avery was generous enough to give me this fine bird, which has 

 now an undoubted right to a place in our Avifauna, and I have much 

 pleasure in submitting it to your inspection this evening. 



