II.— Z OOLOGY. 



Art. XIX. — Notes on the OrnitJiology of New Zealand. By Walter L. 

 BuLLER, C.M.G., Sc.D., F.L.S. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 1st December, 1877.] 

 Following a plan wliicli I have pursued for some years, I beg to lay before 

 the Society a budget of notes on various species of New Zealand birds, 

 without any attempt at systematic arrangement. As natural history is 

 made up chiefly of facts and observations, every recorded note is an 

 additional contribution, however smaU, to the general fund. Facts, in 

 themselves trivial, are often found to assume an importance in relation to 

 other facts ; and a random note sometimes supplies a missing link in the 

 carefully elaborated chain of the systematic philosopher. 



It will be seen that in the following notes I have embodied, sometimes 

 in my own language and sometimes in his, the observations of Captaia 

 Gilbert Mair, F.L.S. , who, during a long residence on the East Coast, has 

 paid special attention to the native birds inhabiting that part of the country. 

 In addition to habits of careful observation, he possesses a good knowledge 

 of the birds themselves, and this adds very much to the value of his state- 

 ments. 



Before proceeding to my own notes, I desire to call attention to the 

 following passage in a very interesting paper by Mr. W. Colenso, F.L.S., 

 pubhshed in the " The Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science," as far back 

 as April, 1845, which I have only lately had an opportunity of reading : — 

 " A httle below Ngaruawahie (in the Waikato district) we met a man in a 

 canoe with a live and elegant specimen of the genus Fulica. I hailed the 

 man and purchased the bird, which he had recently snared, for a little 

 tobacco. It was a most graceful creature, and, as far as I am aware, an 

 entirely new and undescribed species. Its general colour was dark, almost 

 black ; head grey and without a frontal shield ; fore-neck and breast 

 ferruginous red ; wings barred with white ; bill produced and sharp ; feet 

 and legs glossy olive ; toes beautifully and largely festooned at the edges ; 

 eye light-coloured and very animated. It was very fierce and never ceased 

 attempting to bite at everything within its reach. I kept it until we landed, 

 intending to preserve it, but as it was late, and neither material at hand nor 

 time to spare, and the animal too, looking so very lovely that I could not 



