15 [Vol. xv. 



river, and a Canadian canoe rendered access easy in all 

 directions. He proposed to stay about a week longer, and 

 on returning south to leave his taxidermist behind him to 

 continue his researches. 



Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant made the following remarks 

 on the species of the genus Xenicus, and showed that 

 X. stokesi, G. R. Gray, was a very distinct species from 

 X. longipes : — 



Xenicus longipes (Gmel.). 



Judging from the large series kindly lent me by Mr. Walter 

 Rothschild, and from the specimens in the British Museum, 

 which together number forty-six, the fully adult male and 

 female of this species do not differ from one another in 

 plumage, and the bird with the upper parts umber-brown, 

 which both Sir Walter Buller and Dr. Sclater describe as 

 the adult female, is really immature. 



The range of this species is confined to South Island, 

 New Zealand. 



Xenicus stokesi, G. R. Gray. 



The type of this species, an immature bird, was procured 

 by Capt. Stokes in the Rimataka Ranges of Wellington 

 District, North Island. An adult bird was also procured by 

 Capt. Stokes in the same locality, but was identified as 

 X. longipes by G. R. Gray. There can be no doubt that 

 these two specimens are adult and immature examples of the 

 same species. The adult may be at once distinguished from 

 X. longipes by the shining slate-blue sides of the neck and 

 chest tinged, in certain lights, with greenish, and by the 

 patch of pure yellow feathers on the yellowish-green flanks. 

 In the adult of X. longipes the sides of the neck and chest 

 are grey, and the flanks uniform yellowish-green, even in 

 the most brightly-coloured specimens. The bird described 

 by Dr. Sclater [Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xiv. p. 453 (1888)] as 

 the adult of X. gilvivenlris, v. Pelz., is the immature type 

 specimen of X. stokesi. 



