126 Transactions. — Zoology. 



a time in the Otago Acclimatization Society's Gardens, and that (as is too 

 often the case) a wilful deception was practised by the dealer for the sake of 

 obtaining a higher price. 



The bird in question was purchased from Mr. Bills by the Zoological 

 Society as a New Zealand bird, and I i-eceived a letter from Dr. Sclater 

 apprising me of the fact, and kindly placing it at my service. Mr. Bills, 

 whom I saw personally on the subject, declared that it had been obtained on 

 the shores of Lake Waihora, in the interior of the Otago Province, and gave 

 me a circumstantial account of its capture ! As there was nothing improbable 

 in the occurrence of such a form in New Zealand, or rather (as I have pointed 

 out in my Introduction, p. xviii.) as such a form might naturally be looked for 

 there, I did not, of course, discredit the story, and was only too glad to accept 

 Dr. Sclater's offer to make use of the Society's wood-cut in my notice of the 

 species. 



Art. XXIX. — Notes hy Captain Hutton on Dr. Buller's " Birds of New 

 Zealand" with the Author's Jie2)lies thereto."^ 

 [Received hy the Wellington Philosophical Society, March, 1874. ]t 

 "Although fully recognizing the value to ornithologists of Dr. Buller's 

 handsome work on the birds of New Zealand, especially in his determination 

 of Thinornis rossii as the young of T. novce-zealavdice, and in his identification 

 of Gallinago pusilla with G. aucTclandica, I wish to point out what I consider 

 to be certain inaccuracies that I have noticed in it, and also to record my 

 dissent from some of the opinions expressed therein. 



" I have in these notes followed Dr. Buller's nomenclature, but I do not 

 agree with it in all cases." 



[When I undertook to write a " History" of the birds of New Zealand, 

 I was not insensible to the difficulties of the task. The field was a compara- 

 tively unbroken one, and, with a few notable exceptions, the existing 

 literature was confined to dry lists of names and characters of species. In the 

 preparation of my work I had, therefore, to rely mainly on the results of my 

 own observations, extending over a period of many years. At the same time, 

 I freely availed myself of the assistance of Mr. Potts and other local observers, 

 whose contributions were, in every instance, duly acknowledged. Having 

 produced a royal qnarto volume of some 400 pages, the bulk of it being purely 

 original matter, it was not to be expected that my statements on every jDoint 

 would pass unchallenged, or that naturalists who think for themselves would 



* See "The Ibis," January, 1874. t Dated at London 26th December, 1873. 



