387 



The only two specimens of this Nestor that I know of (both of which are in 

 my own collection) were obtained in 1863 by Dr. Hector, in a remote part of the 

 West Coast country to which probably no other explorer has ever penetrated. 

 I submit, therefore, that Dr. Finsch's opinion resting on such insufficient data 

 is by no means conclusive. 



The following notes from so accurate an observer as Dr. Hector are far 

 more to the purpose, for they contain the evidence of a field naturalist on a 

 very material point : — 



" The range of this bird is very limited. It frequents the precipitous 

 wooded cliffs in the neighbourhood, of George Sound. I never met with it in 

 the forests of the low lands. It is more active in its habits and more hawk- 

 like in its flight than the common Nestor. It often sweeps suddenly to the 

 ground ; and its cry differs from that of the common Kaka, in being more 

 shrill and wild." 



Dr. Haast forwarded me specimens of a large Nestor from the West 

 Coast which he considered new, as it differed consideraby from the typical 

 Nestor meridionalis. 



After examining these specimens very carefully, I abstained from charac- 

 terizing the bird as new till I could obtain the opinion of an eminent ornitho- 

 logist in England, to whom I forwarded, examples. His reply has not yet 

 been received, but if Dr. Finsch's remarks apply to this bird, we may consider 

 that it is identical with Nestor meridionalis. 



Dr. Haast was nevertheless fully impressed with the belief that this bird 

 was distinct from the common species, as will appear from the following 

 interesting notes which accompanied one of his specimens : — " I send you 

 another skin of our Alpine Parrot. Even judging from its habits alone, it is 

 quite distinct from the Common Kaka. It is never found in the Fagus forest, 

 whilst the other never goes above it into the sub-alpine vegetation. Near the 

 glacier sources of the Waimakariri, where I was in the latter part of March, I 

 saw them frequently in the Alpine meadows^4000 to 5000 feet high— feeding 

 on the large red berries of Coprosriui pumila and nivalis, two dwarf plants 

 lying close to the ground. We found these berries in the gullets of those we 

 opened. They evidently had their nests with young ones among the crags of 

 the nearly perpendicular rocky walls (about 6000 feet above the sea), and I 

 repeatedly observed them flying backwards and forwards, as if feeding their 

 young. After the first day's shooting they got exceedingly shy, and could not 

 be approached within gun shot." Mr. Fuller, the taxidermist to the Canter- 

 bury Museum, also states, as the result of very careful observation, " that the 

 manner of flight is quite different from that of the common Kaka, for they 

 soar after the manner of the Kea (Nestor notabilis). 



III. — Gerygone assimilis, Buller. 



Dr. Finsch condemns this species, because a specimen i*eceived from Dr. 

 Haast, and labelled " G. assimilis," agrees in every respect with " G flavi- 

 ventris. " 



I am not aware that I ever met with Gerygone assimilis in the South 

 Island. At any rate I demur to being held responsible for wrongly named 

 specimens, which I have never had an opportunity of identifying. I am not 

 surprised that Dr. Finsch, on receiving the supposed example of G. assimilis, 

 was " at once convinced that the skin of this species is not distinguishable from 

 that of the true G. jlaviventris" especially, as he adds that the specimen agrees 

 in every respect with the description and figure given by Mr. Gray — (" Voy. 

 Erebus and Terror "). 



There is an appreciable difference in size between the two species. 



EEE 



