14 



24. The descinption of the Paradise Duck [Casarca variegata) will not 

 apply to either niale or female of that species, neither of them having a 

 " white breast." 



25. Under the head of Alcid^, the author has confu.sed the generic and 

 specific names in a very remarkable manner. 



The members of this family found on the New Zealand coasts are, — 

 Aptenodytes Pennantii, Eudyptesp)acJiyrliynchiis, E. antipodes, Spheniscus minor, 

 and iS. undina. 



26. The last paragraph evidently refers to the Totoara, or Wood Robin 

 (Petroica alhifrons), although it is impossible to understand what the aiithor 

 means by " /Sy^fiaiice eryfJmca.'''' There is a well-known genus, Erythacus, 

 established by Cuvier, of which the robin red-breast, of Europe {E. rubecula), 

 is the type, but the New Zealand robin belongs to a different generic group. 



Art. IV. — Notice of a Species of Megapode, in the A uckland Museum. 

 By Walter Buller, r.L.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Phllosojyhiccd Society, October 22, 1870.] 



In a letter to the Ibis, dated 7th March, 1869, Captain Hutton, writing from 

 Auckland, says, — "We have also in the Museum what is probably a new 

 species of Megapode, from Nuipo, one of the Friendly Group." 



On making an examination of this bird, I was inclined to refer it to one of 

 the species described in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society (November, 

 1867), and in forwarding a desciiption of the specimen to Dr. Finsch, of 

 Bremen, I expressed that opinion. Dr. Finsch replies as follows : — " I am 

 not able to make out the Megapodius mentioned by Captain Hutton, of which 

 you kindly sent me a description. But if the name of the island, Nuipo, 

 which I cannot find among the Friendly Group, is identical with Niafu or 

 Niufu, the bird would be Megapodius Pritchardi, described in our Ornithology 

 of Central Polynesia, p. 153. You. do not mention the white on the longer 

 upper tail coverts ; otherwise the description agrees very well. From Hapai, 

 one of the Friendly Group, Mi\ Gray named the Megap)odius Bur'iiabyi, 

 after an egg (!) received thence. Megapodius senex and M. eremita, Hartl. 

 (Proc. Z. S., p. 830), from Pelew and Echiquier Islands, of which I described 

 the types, are different." 



On referring to the description of 31. Pritchardi, Gray, I find that our bii'd 

 is distinguishable not only by the total absence of white markings on the upper 

 tail coverts, but by other slight differences in the coloration, which may here- 

 after prove of specific value. The former species is thus characterized in 

 Orn. Centr. Polyn. (Finsch and Hartlaub) : — 



Ad, — Alls, dorso medio tergoque rufescente-brunneis ; capite, collo, inter- 



