138 Transactions. — Zoology. 



rank as a distinct species. Dr. BuUer, in his quotation from my Catalogue, 

 omits the first part of the sentence, in which I say that the change in my 

 opinion about this bird was owing to my having visited the South Island," 



[I cannot see how Captain Button's visit to the South Island in any way 

 affects the argument. The only question is, whether the difference of plumage 

 (admitting it to be constant) entitles our bird to rank as a distinct species. 

 I follow Mr. Gould in believing that it does.] 



"PhALACBOCORAX BREVIEOSTRIS. 



" According to Mr. H. Travers, this bird is not found in the Chatham 

 Islands." 



[This species certainly does occur in the Chatham Islands, for I shot a 

 specimen there myself during a short visit in 1855.] 



" Phalaceocorax punctatus. 



" The stage of plumage figured and described by Dr. Buller as that of the 

 female is the winter dress of both sexes. The plumage of the sexes is similar 

 in all Cormorants. This bird is quite as abundant at Napier and in the Pirth 

 of the Thames as in any part of the South Island." 



[I stated (" Birds of New Zealand," p. 336) that I was " by no means 

 certain whether this was not only a seasonal state of plumage." I cannot, 

 however, accept Captain Hutton's dictum on this point till he gives some facts 

 in support of it. Mr. Fuller, who has collected scores of these birds at all 

 seasons, rejected this view, and assured me that he had found the crested and 

 uncrested birds breeding in separate pairs at one and the same time. Both 

 Dr. Haast and Mr. Fuller were inclined to consider the unci-ested bird a 

 distinct species.] . 



" Apteryx mantelli, 



" This bird is not so scarce in the North Island as Dr. Buller imagines. 

 In 1866 I heard it at the Waikato coal-mines; and a few months previously 

 a surveying party killed five at Taupiri, on the opposite side of the river. The 

 natives also told me that it was common on the Piako ranges. In 1868 

 I heard of four being killed at Howick, and two in the Waitakerei ranges, 

 both places being within a few miles of Auckland ; and I have on several 

 occasions had eggs brought me from Pirongia." 



[The few instances that Captain Hutton records do not suffice to make 

 Apteryx mantdli a common species in the North Island. Its practical scarcity 

 may be inferred from the fact that an offer of £5 for a specimen, which 

 appeared some time ago in the Maori newspaper, failed to obtain one. 



I must here record my total dissent from the opinion expressed by 

 Captain Hutton, and based on the structure of the egg-shell, that Apteryx 

 "belongs to the Carinate type of birds" (Trans. N.Z. Inst., IV., p. 167), for 

 such a view is entirely opposed to the principles of modern classification.] 



