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Order ARDEIIFORMES.] 



[Family ARDEID^E. 



NYCTICORAX C ALEDONI US . 



(NANKEEN NIGHT-HERON.) 



Nycticorax caledonicus (Gmelin), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 139. 



I have added to my collection another New Zealand-killed example of this Night-Heron, 

 differing from those already recorded in being furnished with the beautiful occipital white plumes, 

 rolled in the form of a pointed queue, 7 inches long. This was shot at the mouth of the Catlin 

 Eiver, about a mile from the sea, about August or September, 1888. As already recorded (vol. ii., 

 pp. 139, 140), Sir George Grey, when Governor of the Colony, in 1852, introduced some of these 

 birds from Australia, and liberated them at Wellington, But as early as 1845 the Eev. Mr. 

 Colenso met with one in the Waikato district (I.e., p. 140) ; and as the bird is only met with rarely, 

 singly, and at long intervals, it is most reasonable to suppose that these are stray visitants from 

 Australia, rather than the descendants of the imported stock. The example described in my first 

 edition, and now in the Colonial Museum, was shot in the neighbourhood of Wellington in 1856, 

 and may have been one of the introduced birds. 



ARDETTA PUSILLA. 



(LITTLE BITTERN.) 



Ardetta maculata (iliath.), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol, ii., p. 136. 

 Ardea pusilla, Yieill., N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., xiv., p. 432 (1847). 



On showing Major Kemp Eangihiwinui the specimen of the Little Bittern in the Wanganui 

 Museum, he called it a Karourou, and said that in former years it abounded in the extensive 

 swamps of the Manawatu district. All the hitherto recorded specimens have come from the South 

 Island. 



I obtained by exchange from Mr. Drew, of Wanganui, a female example of this Little 

 Bittern, the value being assessed at £11. Curiously enough, on the very next morning I received 

 as a present from Mr. C. A. Barton, of Hokitika, a male of the same species. These are the only 

 specimens of this very rare species in my collection. 



This pretty little Bittern has a wide distribution in the Southern Hemisphere. It inhabits 

 Australia, having been obtained in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in East Australia, from Bockingham 

 Bay to Victoria, and in South Australia, besides being met with occasionally in New 

 Zealand. 



