200 Transactions. — Zoology. 



The same correspondent, in connection with this species, has furnished 

 me with another instance of the law of assimilative colouring in eggs for 

 protective purposes. In December, 1875, he visited the Eurima Eocks, in 

 the Bay of Plenty, and found large numbers of Larus scopaUnus breeding 

 there. In some localities the nests — roughly formed and lined with 

 feathers — were placed in the thick masses of wild sx)inach or in the midst 

 of " sand-fire." In all such cases he observed that the eggs which these 

 nests contained were splashed over their entire surface with large green 

 blotches, thus assimilating their colour to the surrounding vegetation ; 

 whilst other eggs (belonging to the same sjpecies), deposited on the white 

 sand in the immediate vicinity, had a totally different appearance, being of 

 a light stone-colour, and so marked as to harmonize exactly with the sandy 

 surroundings. 



Stercorarius parasiticus, Linn. — Buffon's Skua. 



I have to exhibit to the Society another specimen of the skua, or 

 plundering gull (in immature plumage), killed in Wellington harbour in 

 the early part of the present year, and purchased by me from Mr. Liardet. 

 This is the third recorded instance of the occurrence of this species in New 

 Zealand.* 



PoDicEPS cRisTATUs, Lath. — Crested Grebe. 



I have never met with this species in the North Island, but Captain 

 Mair informs me that he has on two occasions seen it in Waikaremoana 

 Lake in the Urewera country, and once on the Waikareiti, another lake in 

 the same vicinity. 



PoDiCEPS RUFiPECTus, Gray. — Dabchick. 



The following is an interesting fact in connection with the local range of 

 this little grebe which is almost incapable of flight : — 



Mount Edgecumbe is a high volcanic cone on the banks of the Eangi- 

 taiki Eiver some fifteen miles from the sea. At the bottom of the now 

 extinct crater there is a small pool of water about thirty yards across. In 

 this pool Captain Man-, in 1868, observed three of these dabchicks disporting 

 themselves in the water. Some months after the same number was seen 

 again in the same place by Dr. Nesbitt and Dr. Manley, and again by 

 another party of visitors a considerable time afterwards. There are lagoons 

 at the foot of the mountain frequented by these buxls ; but the singular 

 fact is that those inhabiting the basin must have chmbed up the cone, which 

 is thickly covered on the outside with dense scrubby vegetation, and then 

 down the crater, which contains a heavy forest-growth right down to the 

 edge of the pool. 



Captain Man* states that the dabchick is very plentiful in the Hot 



* See " Birds of N.Z.," p. 268 ; and " Trans. N.Z. Inst.," Vn., p. 225. 



