228 Essays. 



A spoon-bill is recorded by Mr. EUman as baving been seen at Castle 

 Point (Nortb Island). Tbis was probably a straggler from Australia, being 

 either Platalea flavipes or P. regla. 



Fam. ScoLOPACiDiE. — Of tbe genus Himantopus, New Zealand, like 

 Australia, is inhabited by a single species, known as tbe stilt plover {H. 

 novcE-zealandicB) . It is a bandsome bird, and, notwithstanding the extreme 

 length and apparent disproportion of its legs, all its movements are easy and 

 graceful. The range of this plover does not extend further north than the 

 Upper Waikato. 



The bird described by Mr. Grray as the male of this species will probably 

 prove to be distinct. The other recorded species are — Limosa novce-zealandics, 

 Ccenocoryplia aucldandica, and Hecurvirostra (?) ruhricoUis. 



Pam. Rallidje. — The rails of New Zealand constitute a prominent and 

 peculiar feature in its ornithology. They embrace members of six different 

 genera, each of which deserves separate notice. 



Professor Owen had already determined the characters of the presumed 

 extinct genus Notornis, when the discovery of a living example, by a party 

 of sealers in Dusky Bay, while it established the soundness of his physio- 

 logical inferences, furnished another proof of the comparatively recent 

 existence of the moa and its kindred. Only two specimens of this bird have 

 been obtained, both of which are now deposited in the British Museum. 

 They were forwarded to Europe by "Walter Mantell, Esq., of Wellington, in 

 compliment to whom Professor Owen named the species Notornis mcmtelli. 

 (Trans. Z.S. Ill, p. 337.) 



Another genus of brevi-pennate rails (Oci/dronms) is represented by 

 three species, in all of which the anterior extremities are so feebly 

 developed as to be utterly powerless for flight. The Ocydromiis australis 

 is excessively abundant in the South, and the Ocydromus earli is still 

 common in the southern parts of the North Island; but the third species, 

 O. hrachypte^nis, is extremely rare, if not already extinct, in all the settled 

 districts. 



Our only member of the new genus HypotcBnidia is the moeriki {H. 

 dieffenhacliii) , an extremely beautiful rail, restricted in its range to the 

 Chatham Islands. Mr. G-ray has given an excellent figure of this bird in 

 the Voyage of H.M.SS. "Erebus" and "Terror." This species is also fast 

 disappearing from our fauna. It was sought for in vain during a visit to the 

 Chathams nearly ten years ago, and the natives described it then as the 

 rarest of their birds. 



Our representative member of the restricted genus Hallus {R. assimilis) 

 resembles closely an Australian species, but is distinguishable by the pectoral 



