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At the Bnller crossing— six miles from Westport— I found the Korimako, in 1898, very 

 abundant.* 



I have from time to time recorded albinoes, more or less perfect, of this species; but 

 there is in my son's collection a specimen in which the entire plumage is of a delicate 

 olivaceous-yellow, the quills and tail-feathers being white with greyish webs. Bill and feet 

 pale brown, instead of being respectively black and leaden-grey, as in the normal state. 



In the Nelson Museum there is another beautiful yellow specimen. The whole of the 

 body-plumage is pale canary-yellow; the quills and tail-feathers, which are white, have their 

 outer webs marked with yellow; bill and feet yellowish-brown. 



To the accidental varieties previously recorded, I have to add an albino received from 

 Akaroa, the whole of the plumage being white, slightly tinged with golden-yellow. 



The last specimen of a Korimako's nest, containing eggs, received by me, was sent to 

 England recently by Mr. W. W. Smith. It was taken from the collection formed by his late 

 son, Walter Valentine, a youth of high promise, who was an ardent student of New Zealand 

 ornithology. It is a good typical specimen, but differs from all other examples I have seen 

 in the character of its lining. Invariably the cup is lined with soft feathers, but in this 

 instance the material exclusively used is the soft pappus found attached to the dry seed- 

 vessels of the pikiarero, or native Clematis. 



I lately had an opportunity of examining a collection of twenty-three eggs of this 

 species, all from the South Island. I made the following notes : They vary only very 

 slightly in size, but exhibit a considerable amount of variation in the markings. In most 

 of them the ground-colour is white, in others it is suffused with a delicate blush of pink. 

 Some have the larger end smeared and the rest of the surface irregularly spotted with 

 rusty-brown ; in others the brown markings form an indistinct zone ; in some the brown 

 is concentrated at the larger pole, the rest of the shell being entirely free from markings. 

 In some specimens these markings are irregular, being streaky or blotchy ; in others they are 

 rounded dots, being more or less confluent at the pole. Their colour varies from a dull umber- 

 brown to a warm reddish-brown. In a few of them the markings are distributed over the 

 entire surface in the form of minute speckles, without any appearance of a zone or any con- 

 gestion at the larger pole. Two that I selected for the purpose measured, respectively, 

 0'75 in. by 0*625 in. and 0'88 in. by 0'55 in., both being slightly pyriform. 



I have seen an egg of this species conspicuously marked with scattered blotches of 

 blackish -brown all over the surface. 



Mr. Percy Smith, the late Surveyor-General, has sent me the following interesting 

 note : x In Dr. Lesson's ' Voyage aux lies Mangarewa ' I have come across the following : 

 In a list of eighteen birds, of which he gives the native names, he ends by saying, * enfin le 

 Komako, line espece cle Philedon qui ne quitte pas les lieux boises.' The resemblance of the 

 name to our Komako or Korimako, together with its scientific name, being identical, would 

 seem to prove that the Gambier Islands have a representative of our bird there. You 

 have not noted the fact in your ' History,' so the information is probably new to you, and is 

 of much interest." 



Specimens of this bird from the Auckland Islands appear to be, as a rule, a trifle larger 

 than New Zealand examples. 



:: In a letter received from Mr. W. W. Smith, a member of the New Zealand Scenery Preservation Commission 

 (dated Pipiriki, January 23rd, 1905), that gentleman says : "In my last note to you I stated that we had not met with 

 the Korimako during our travels in the North Island. While passing down the Wanganui Eiver yesterday in a canoe, 

 between Paranui Pa and Pipiriki, we heard several singing charmingly in the magnificent forest clothing the banks of 

 the great river. To-day we were on the Pipiriki and Eaetiki road and again heard their rich notes in the beautiful 

 primaeval bush crossing the whole extent of country we travelled through." 





