BuLLER. — Notes on the Ornithology of New Zealand. 197 



LiMNOCiNCLtis ACUMiNATus, Horsf. — Sandpiper. 



Dr. von Haast having allowed me to examine a specimen of this bird 

 killed at Lake Ellesmere in the month of December, I have been able to 

 add the following description to my former notes on this interesting 

 addition to our avifauna : — 



Crown of the head and lores dull rufous ; each feather centred with. 

 brown ; nape, hindneck, and the whole of the mantle brownish-grey, 

 slightly tinged with rufous, each feather largely centred with dark brown, 

 which gradually fades into grey ; lower i^art of back, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts blackish-brown, slightly margined with rufous ; wing feathers dark 

 brown with white shafts, the superior coverts largely tipped, and the 

 secondaries narrowly margined with white ; small wing-coverts dull brown 

 with greyish margins ; tail feathers blackish-brown, with a narrow margin 

 of fulvous white ; line over the eye, chin and throat white ; sides of the 

 head dark grey, speckled with brown ; the whole of the foreneck fulvous 

 grey speckled with brown, and more distinctly on the outer sides ; breast, 

 abdomen, and under tail-coverts fulvous white, the latter with a streak of 

 brown down the shafts ; sides of the body, axillary plumes, and inner 

 lining of wings pure white ; towards the outer edges of the wing mottled 

 with brown. The outermost upj)er tail-coverts also are white, with a 

 lanceolate streak of brown down the centre. Bill brown ; legs and feet 

 yellowish- olive. Length, 7 inches; wing from flexure, 6-15; tail, 2-15; 

 bill along the ridge, -95, along the edge of lower mandible, 1'05 ; bare 

 tibia. '5 ; tarsus, 1-1 ; middle toe and claw, 1-2 ; hallux and claw, -3. 



Ardetta maculata, B idler. — Little Bittern. 



All the hitherto recorded examples of the little bittern are from the 

 South Island. But Mr. Colenso assures me that a live specimen was 

 captured by the natives at Tauranga in the year 1836. It was in his 

 IDOssession alive for some time, and he afterwards sent the skin to the 

 Linnean Society. The bird was quite new to the natives hi that part of the 

 country. 



Nycticorax caledonicus, Ste2)h. — Night Heron. 



The same informant, in the published article already quoted, supplies 

 evidence of the occurrence of another South Island visitant in this island 

 also. The record (1845) is as follows : — " In crossing a very deep swamp, 

 a beautiful bird, apparently of the crane kind, rose gracefully from the mud 

 among the reeds and flew slowly past us ; its under plumage was of a light 

 yellow or ochre colour, with a dark brown upper i^lumage. None of my 

 natives knew the bkd, declaring they had never seen such an one before." It 

 is evident that the bird here referred to is the Nankeen night-heron of 

 Australia, ah-eady included among our occasional stragglers. 



