154 



Young. — A young bird, just from the nest, has the plumage of the upper surface strongly 

 suffused with fulvous, the quills and their coverts, as well as the tail-feathers, broadly 

 margined with fulvous, and the face, throat and under-parts entirely of that colour. The 

 outer tail-feathers, which are white in the adult, are of a uniform pale fulvous. This colour 

 is brightest on the fore-neck and breast, where the feathers are obscurely centred with 

 brown. 



I have received a specimen from Antipodes Island, which does not differ from the 

 Auckland Island bird, except that it is somewhat darker and yellower, being evidently a 

 younger bird. 



Specimens have likewise been received from Campbell Island. 



Referring to two specimens in my collection purchased from Mr. Henry Travers, that 

 gentleman writes : "I saw this bird myself on Eose Island, one of the Auckland group, 

 and shot it there ; so mine is positive evidence as against any theory to the contrary. 

 Mr. Bethune's belief that it does not exist there rests on merely negative evidence of his 

 never having actually seen it." 



In the ' Transactions of the N.Z. Institute,' vol. xxi., p. 388, Mr. Eeischek, after con- 

 sultation with Professor Thomas and Mr. Cheeseman, at the Auckland Museum, described 

 a new Ground Lark or Pipit from Antipodes Island, and named it Anthus steindachneri, 

 after the Director of the Imperial Museum at Vienna. I have not seen the type, but the 

 description of the bird given by Mr. Eeischek indicates no difference between this bird and 

 Anthus aucklandicus. 



Order PASSERIFORMES.] 



[Family STURNIMS. 







H E T E R ALOCHA AC U T I R OS T R I S. 



(HUIA.) 



Heteralocha acutirostris, Gould; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. L, p. 7. 



I do not know of any more picturesque sight in the New Zealand woods — now, alas ! the 

 opportunities are becoming few and far between — than that of a small party of these hand- 

 some birds, playfully disporting themselves among the branches, in the intervals between their 

 customary feeding times. Take for our purpose a dense piece of native vegetation — jungle 

 I may call it — aiid furnish it, in imagination, with two pairs of these graceful ebony-coloured 

 Starlings with their prominent orange-yellow wattles. They are hopping actively from branch 

 to branch, and at short intervals balance themselves and spread to their full extent their 

 broad white-tipped tails, as if in sheer delight; then the sexes meet for a moment to caress 

 each other with their beautiful ivory bills, while they utter a low, whimpering love-note ; and 

 then, without any warning, as if moved by a sudden inspiration, they bound off in company, 

 flying and leaping in succession, to some favourite feeding-place, far away in the silent depths 

 of the forest. 



I ! 



