Obdek CHAEADEIIFOEMES.] 



[Family GLAEEOLID^J. 



STILTIA ISABELLA. 



, (AUSTEALIAN PEATINCOLE.) 



Glareola grallaria (Temm), Buller, Trans. N. Z. Inst., 1898, p. 23. 



The only known instance of the occurrence of this beautiful species in New Zealand was recorded 

 by Mr. William Townson in the ' Transactions of the New Zealand Institute ' by means of a letter 

 to myself (vol. xxxi., p. 23). I afterwards had an opportunity of examining and verifying this 

 specimen. Mr. Townson informs me that he heard of a party of five being seen on the beach a few 

 days after this one was shot. 



Mr. Townson's communication was as follows : " The bird was first seen by Mr. J. B. 

 McKenzie, an agent for the National Mutual Life Insurance Company, and he came back from 

 the beach for a gun, and on his return shot the bird and brought it to me. I remembered 

 seeing either the bird or a plate of it, and on turning up the ' Koyal Natural History ' I found 

 an illustration of it, and a pretty full description. The hind-toe, forked tail, and the black line 

 bordering the buff-coloured throat are sufficiently distinctive, the only point omitted in the 

 description being the scarlet margin to the gape. The bird was seen hawking after flies on the 

 beach. It proved to be a male, and the stomach contained the remains of insects and beetles. 

 It seemed quite at home with its surroundings, and I found it in perfect plumage, without any 

 stains of travel or any marks of having been in confinement — so different from an Australian 

 Curlew in my possession, which was shot on the same beach, and which was ragged and frayed 

 out as though it had been beating up against head weather for a week." 



Writing of this species, in his ' Birds of Australia,' Mr. Gould says it " possesses several 

 remarkable specific distinctions: the great length of the tarsi and primaries, which, combined 

 with the graceful contour of its body and the small size of its head, render it the most elegant 

 species of the genus that has yet been discovered." 



Order AEDEIFOEMES.] 



[Family IBIDIDiE. 



PLEGADIS FALCINELLUS.- 



(GLOSSY IBIS.) 



Tantalus falcinellus, Linn., Syst. Nat., vol. L, p. 241 (1766). 



I have added this fine bird to our list on the authority of the following letter from Captain 

 Hutton, under date of May 10th, 1902 : " Yesterday I received a specimen of the Glossy Ibis, in 

 winter or young plumage, which had been shot, near Timaru, a day or two before. Unfortunately 

 the neck and breast had been eaten by rats, so that I cannot mount the specimen. I mean 

 by Glossy Ibis, Plegadis falcinellus ." 



Kepresentatives of this genus have a range over nearly the whole of the temperate portions of 

 the Old and New Worlds, extending to Africa, India, and Australia, as well as to South America ; 

 so there is nothing extraordinary in a straggler finding its way to New Zealand. 





