BuLLER. — Xotes on the OmUhoIofpj of New Zealand. 193 



was much dead timber on the banks of the river, and it appeared to me 

 that the birds were feasting on the large brown cicada. Tliis is the only 

 occasion on which I have observed this species consorting as it were in 

 parties." 



Chrysoooccyx lugidus, Gould. — Shining Cuckoo. 



KesxJectiug our httle migratory cuckoo, Captain Mair furnishes the 

 following notes : — " Speaking from ten years' observation of this bhd m 

 the Tauranga district, I may state that it never sings after the middle of 

 February and seldom after the beginning of that mouth. As late as the 

 end of March or beginning of April, during several successive years, I 

 have met with these bhds in the Mangorewa forest between Tatu-anga and 

 Eotorua, but never heard them utter a note at this season. I have seen 

 numbers of them perched in silence on the branches of the poporo (Solanum. 

 nigrum), always in full feather, but absolutely songless. This I regard as 

 a very curious fact. On the subject of their parasitic habit of breeding, I 

 may add that on two occasions I have seen the young cuckoo fed by the 

 grey warbler — a bird considerably its inferior in size ; and I can further 

 attest, from personal observation, that the same little bird performs the liLe 

 parental office for the young of the koheperoa, or long-tailed cuckoo, as 

 sketched in Dr. BuUer's ' ButIs of New Zealand.' " 



PoGONORNis ciNCTA, Gray. — Stitch-bird. 



Captain Mair informs me that this handsome bu'd is still plentiful 

 on the West Coast between Eaglan and Waikato Heads, also in the ranges 

 behind the Wangape Lake in the Lower Waikato. 



It was formerly comparatively abundant in the wooded hills around 

 Wellington and flanking the Hutt valley, but for some years past not a 

 specimen has been obtained. 



Anthus NOv^-zEALANDiiE, Gray. — New Zealand Pipit. 



Li former papers I have mentioned the frequent occurrence of albino 

 ground-larks, and commented on the remarkable tendency generaUy to 

 albinism in many other species of bird in New Zealand — a fact not easily 

 accounted for in a temperate and equable climate like ours. This abnormal 

 feature appears to be extending itself to the introduced bh'ds, and the 

 foUowing newspaper clipping furnishes an instance ; — 



" As an ornithological curiosity an up-country paper mentions that a 

 gentleman residing near the Wairara]3a Lake has noticed on his run two 

 English larks, the one being pure white and the other as yellow as a 

 canary." 



EmpiDURA FULiGiNosA, Bullev, — Black Fantail. 



Since my last notice of this species, three more instances of its occur- 

 rence in the North Island have come to my knowledge. y 



