318 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Platycekcus alpinus, Buller. 



Mr. Keischek met with tins little parakeet in the scrub on the sunmiit 

 of Mount Alexander (above Lake Brunner on the West Coast) ; and he met 

 with the species again on the Hen, where he shot two, and on the Little 

 Barrier, where he observed another pair, and killed the male. 



While on this subject I may be permitted to refer to a passage in the 

 paper read by Mr. Travers last year, " On the Distribution of New Zealand 

 Birds."* He explains that, in making his analysis of genera and species, he 

 has " assumed that Dr. Buller has seen good reasons for reaffirming Platy- 

 cercus alpinus as a species in the Manual, notwithstanding the remarks on 

 the subject in his larger work." 



It is true that I yielded to the arguments of Dr. Finsch and agreed to 

 sink my Platycercus alpinus, as a species, and treated it in the text of my work 

 as the young of Platycercus auriceps. In the Introduction, however, to the 

 book, I gave my reasons for reinstating this form. I there explained that 

 more than twenty living examples of this bird had recently been brought 

 to England ; that it was to be seen alive in the Gardens of the Zoological 

 Society of London ; and that the validity of the species had thus been 

 established beyond all doubt. 



Charadrius fulvus. 



In April, 1881, Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, the Curator of the Auckland 

 Museum, wrote informing me that he had obtained two specimens (male 

 and female) of the Golden Plover, both shot on the Mauukau Harbour ; 

 and he afterwards made an interesting communication on the subject to the 

 Auckland Institute (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xiv., p. 264). 



Of this rare visitant, Mr. C. H. Robson, with his usual activity in the 

 cause of science, has obtained and forwarded to me a fine pair from Port- 

 land Island. I take this opportunity of exhibiting them, and also of com- 

 municating to the society some notes on this bird by my correspondent who 

 was fortunate enough to discover its breeding place and to obtain its eggs. 



Art. XXIV. — On Hieracidea novse-zealandiae, and H. brunnea. By W. 

 W. Smith. Communicated by Dr. Buller, C.M.G., F.R.S. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 31st October, 1883.] 

 In the summer and autumn of 1876 I shot several specimens of " Sparrow 

 Hawk," varying so much in size that I was often surprised at the extraor- 

 dinary difference in the specimens I obtained. Taking as I did at the time 



* See Trans. N.Z. Inst., xv., art. xiv, 



